Free Republic

Recent figures from the Central Bank of Iran highlight the scale of the problem. In the Iranian year 1403 (2024/25), the average annual gross expenditure of an urban household reached about 4.69 billion rials, or roughly 391 million rials per month, marking a year-on-year increase of nearly 38%. Of this amount, close to 30% was spent on food and beverages alone. For an average household of 3.2 people, monthly food expenses exceeded 116 million rials.

Spanish civil engineers have renewed urgent warnings over the deteriorating condition of the country’s dams, as flooding linked to Storm Leonardo heightens public concern and exceptional rainfall is forecast to continue until the weekend. Experts say the storm has exposed long-standing structural weaknesses in Spain’s water infrastructure and highlighted decades of insufficient investment in safety and maintenance. Professional engineering bodies warn that around one third of Spain’s state-owned dams require urgent structural reinforcement, while roughly half have defective bottom outlet systems, a critical component for controlling water levels during extreme weather events. They argue that the risks are growing as...

New York City hasn’t had a trash pickup for 1/3rd of Mamdani’s term. New York City would smell worse than it does if it weren’t so cold. And if it weren’t so cold.&br>

The socialist Spanish government’s amnesty scheme will allow illegal migrants to simply declare that they have no criminal record, rather than providing documentation from their native countries, sparking concern over criminals gaming the system. Last month, the left-wing coalition government of Socialist PM Pedro Sánchez agreed to allow upwards of half a million illegals seek amnesty and obtain residence permits to remain in Spain. While the scheme stipulates that amnesty will not apply to migrants with criminal records — other than the crime of entering Spain illegally — the regularisation decree published by the government this week revealed that Madrid...

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced sweeping plans at the World Government Summit in Dubai to hold social media executives criminally liable and curb platform algorithms, prompting a sharp and profane response from X owner Elon Musk. Sánchez laid out five measures in a speech, with implementation set to begin next week. "Dirty Sánchez is a tyrant and traitor to the people of Spain," Musk wrote on X, using an explicit insult and a poop emoji. Sánchez framed the proposals by describing social media as a lawless digital ecosystem, arguing that platforms have become a "failed state" where disinformation, hate...

The leader of the Spanish far-left admits at an event that she is in favor of replacing the native population with foreigners to alter voting dynamics: «I hope for 'replacement theory,' I hope we can sweep this country of fascists and racists with immigrants. Whatever their skin color, whether 'Chinese, Black, or Brown'»

President Donald Trump's favorability ratings remain stagnant as he enters the 13th month of his second term, according to an I&I/TIPP poll. The poll, conducted at the end of January, found 41% of voters view Trump favorably, while 50% rated him unfavorably.Last month, Trump had a 41% favorability rating and a 49% unfavorable rating. Republicans, who gave Trump an 80% favorable rating and just a 13% unfavorable rating in January, gave a 77% favorable rating and 17% unfavorable in this month's poll. Among Democrats, Trump's favorability fell from 13% in January to 10% in February, while his unfavorability remained at...

A video from Spain has become global ammunition for critics who argue that parts of Europe’s radical left openly welcome demographic change as a political tool. A short video clip from Spain has reverberated far beyond, exposing a fault line in Europe’s migration debate and fueling claims that parts of the continent’s far left view immigration not only as a social policy but as an electoral instrument. The footage shows Irene Montero, a senior figure in Spain’s hard-left Podemos, former equality minister and currently serving as an MEP, addressing a public event. In it, Montero expresses her hope that immigration...

First a foot of snow, then the plowed-in cars, and now frustrated New Yorkers are furious over mountains of trash piling up on city streets, as collection has been reduced by January’s massive winter storm. A reporter from the New York Post took in the “unsavory sights” of the aftermath and documented heaps of garbage bags and cardboard boxes littering the sidewalks as the Department of Sanitation was still playing catch-up in several neighborhoods since the winter onslaught. Garbage is not the only problem, as snowplows have tended to deposit high banks of the white stuff against cars parked along...

Eight-foot piles of rat-infested trash are choking the streets around Gracie Mansion — which has gotten white-glove shoveling treatment as Mayor Zohran Mamdani crows he can’t “imagine how it could get better’’ in the city. While Hizzoner’s Upper East Side neighbors are forced to trudge through garbage-plagued roads, roaming rodents and mounds of snow tainted with dog pee a full week after Winter Storm Fern, the sidewalks outside the lefty mayor’s digs on East 88th Street are squeaky clean. “Clean as a whistle for the mayor,” Rivers said. “Look at this side.” “This side” is marred by massive piles of...

"Of course I hope for replacement theory, I hope we can sweep this country of fascists and racists with immigrants."

Billions in taxpayer money have disappeared in Minnesota...but it’s not just Minnesota. There are other blue states where billions in taxpayer funds seem to be unaccountable. What happened to the missing money? Obviously, it went into someone’s account, at times with the knowledge of state officials who may have received contributions or votes to remain silent, but into whose account? The contrast between New York and Florida in this regard, as in so much else, is revealing. The marginal income tax rate in New York state is 10.9% (nearly 15% in NYC ), along with sales taxes nearly 9% in...

Seven countries. One collapsing system. From Iran’s 99% currency crash to Lebanon’s total economic wipeout, from Pakistan’s nuclear-armed instability to Sudan’s civil war and famine, state failure is spreading across the Muslim world. These aren’t isolated disasters—they’re feeding each other. Economic collapse fuels unrest. Unrest drives refugees. Refugee shocks destabilize neighbors. Extremism fills the vacuum. In this video, we break down the dangerous cascade linking Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Sudan—and why this moment may be the most serious threat to regional and global stability in a generation.

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. We now know West Midlands Police banned Jewish away fans from attending a football match in Birmingham because they feared the wrath of local armed Islamists. Then they lied and blamed the Jewish fans. It’s almost a week since the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, Craig Guilford came before the Home Affairs Select Committee and was confronted with the evidence amassed by my tenacious colleague Nick Timothy. He obfuscated and dissembled and was humiliated and disgraced. We’re still waiting for him to resign, or be sacked by...

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,...

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...

The question is not whether the EU collapses but whenIf I were a bookie, I would be making odds now about when the European Union will finally unravel and die. Unless there is an imminent and drastic course correction, the blessed event cannot be far off. I might need a Doomsday Clock akin to the one publicized by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Their clock hovers near midnight, which signifies nuclear Armageddon, the minute hand pushed closer or farther away from the blast depending on minatory world events. My clock would measure the EU’s proximity to implosion. Its recent...

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...

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...