Free Republic

What we witnessed yesterday on the Downing Street step was deeply troubling to those who care about our democracy. In the space of just a few short weeks, Andy Burnham has effectively crowbarred his way into No10 without anyone even trying to block his path. He has arrived there unelected, unopposed and with no mandate from the public whatsoever but for a by-election victory in Makerfield. Meanwhile, the rest of the country has been left scratching its head in bewilderment as it faces yet another handover of power to someone it never asked for, nor, frankly, knows very much about...

Iran has told its citizens to turn off their air conditioning during peak hours as the country's power grid came under strain amid US strikes. Tehran's energy ministry said that the power restrictions were necessary 'to help ensure a stable electricity supply in the southern provinces, which are currently facing extreme heat and attacks on electricity supply facilities.' Temperatures in the capital were expected to hit triple digits Friday, with highs of 102F on Saturday and Sunday.

After the sudden death of US Senator Lindsey Graham was announced Sunday morning, the race for the US Senate in South Carolina has burst wide open, and it appears Nancy Mace wants in. South Carolina Congresswoman Mace finished last in June's GOP primary for South Carolina Governor, after garnering just 12 percent of the vote. Yet, multiple reports circulated on Sunday morning that Mace was considering re-entering the political arena. South Carolina's current Governor, Henry McMaster, who is term-limited, will select a temporary replacement for Graham, and that candidate will need to win both a primary and a general election...

China is closing in on the US in the AI race after the superpower developed its cybersecurity capabilities to match those of its American rivals. Beijing-based tech firms 360 Security Technology and Z.ai, also known as Zhipu AI, have narrowed the gap with American competitors when it comes to finding bugs. 360 Security Chief Executive Zhou Hongyi told a cybersecurity conference in the Chinese capital that the company's bug-finding tool, called Tulongfeng, is now comparable to Anthropic's Mythos, which serves the same function. 'This kind of powerful weapon that can alter the landscape of cyberwarfare can't remain solely in American...

Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister 'all the Jews are sick of you' during a shouting match regarding peace in the Middle East, according to a new book about the President's second term. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's 'Regime Change' details Trump's attempt to broker a Gaza peace deal between Israel and Hamas in September of 2025. The President was on the call with Netanyahu, son in law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff when they became frustrated with the prime minister following an Israeli strike on Qatar. That's when Trump unleashed, the book claims. 'Everybody's sick of you, Bibi....

JD Vance suggested Israel may not be on board with a US-Iran peace deal as he was grilled over bombshell intelligence reports claiming Benjamin Netanyahu's spy agencies have been eavesdropping on American negotiators. US intelligence officials are alarmed by Israel's eavesdropping on American diplomats negotiating with Iran. The Pentagon now ranks Israel as a bigger counterintelligence threat than some of America's enemies, according to The New York Times.The report details concerns that Israel has been spying on senior Trump officials, including the President's top negotiator Steve Witkoff and Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, along with other American military and government...

After years of being asked to leave gratuities everywhere from coffee shops and takeout counters to ride-share apps and self-service kiosks, many consumers say they have had enough - and are now tipping less than they did just a year ago. A new nationwide survey found that 78 percent of Americans believe tipping culture has become 'ridiculous,' while nearly half say they have actively cut back on gratuities in 2026 as household budgets come under increasing pressure. The findings, from restaurant technology company Popmenu, suggest a growing backlash against what many consumers see as relentless requests for extra money on...

Donald Trump has officially sunk 'disloyal' Texas Senator John Cornyn, but his high-stakes gambit to oust a veteran Republican will almost certainly cost the party. Top Republicans think the Texas tab could top $200 million. The worst-case cost for the GOP? The prized red state Senate seat falling into Democratic hands in six months. Cornyn's resounding double-digit defeat to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in Tuesday evening's runoff demonstrates Trump's enduring stranglehold on the GOP. But his decision to punish a well-funded incumbent and instead throw his weight behind a scandal-plagued nominee now presents fresh problems for the party. The...

ouching down in the nation's capital under a cloud of security and fierce political tension, King Charles III and Queen Camilla officially kicked off their four–day state visit on Monday. Donald Trump and Melania Trump were on hand to welcome the royal couple at the White House in the afternoon. Amid West Wing construction and fresh security concerns following the terrifying shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend, the royals were greeted by the President and First Lady...

A patriotic poster girl of the MAGA movement, now famous for her love of Coors Light, firearms and sub-zero bikini shoots, has been revealed as a total digital fabrication. This viral influencer babe is not an American patriot at all, but rather a 22-year-old male medical student from India. The aspiring orthopedic surgeon admitted that the blonde bombshell was nothing more than his AI-generated goldmine designed to fund his way through med school and, ironically, finance his eventual move to the United States. Leveraging demographic data from Google's Gemini AI, the creator engineered Emily Hart, a digital persona tailored to...

Goldman Sachs has issued a stark warning to workers caught up in the AI-driven layoff wave – finding a new job could take longer, and it may pay less when they do. The Wall Street giant says tech employees displaced by automation are facing a tougher road back into work than those in more stable industries. To make matters worse, the very technology replacing them also erodes the value of their skills. In March alone, US employers announced 60,620 job cuts - a 25 percent increase from the previous month - with AI linked to roughly one in four of...

The number of Americans claiming asylum in Canada has jumped dramatically, as voters who dislike Donald Trump and his policies flee north of the border. In 2025, there were 1,850 asylum applications for Americans seeking to move to Canada - more than double the 700 in 2024, the year Trump won his second presidential election. Immigration data, viewed by the Daily Mail, shows that US asylum claims are approaching figures not seen since Trump's last term, with a record 2,535 applying for asylum in 2017, at the height of the anti-Trump 'Resistance' movement. Prior to Trump taking office in 2017,...

Travelers are waiting in 270-minute-long queues at America's busiest airports after nearly half the Transportation Security Administration officers called off work. Wait times have reached nearly five hours at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas after 42 percent of TSA staff called out Tuesday. Security queues snaked around the Houston airport and through an underground tunnel as staff warned travelers whose flights were departing 'soon' that they 'may not clear security in time,' CNN reported.Nearly 50 percent of staff at Houston's Hobby Airport called off Monday, but chaos has since calmed at the Southwest hub with security wait times...

Trump celebrated the news of Mueller's passing, writing on Truth Social: 'Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!' Trump has disliked Mueller since the latter was charge of the investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 election, which the president won. Trump labeled the investigation a 'witch hunt' and frequently attacked Mueller. The former FBI director spent two years investigating, concluding that Russia had interfered with the election to benefit Trump.

Footage has emerged of President Donald Trump warning of the threat posed by Iran's Supreme Leader and America's goals in a war with the nation, 39 years ago. The video captured an interview with late journalist and television personality Barbara Walters in December 1987, where Trump appeared to predict the current crisis in the Middle East and laid out his war plans if he were president. At age 41, Trump said: 'The next time Iran attacks this country, go in and grab one of their big oil installations and I mean grab it and keep it and get back your...

The US launched preemptive strikes against Iran after learning Israel was about to attack — and American troops in the region faced an imminent threat of retaliation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday. Rubio made the revelation on Capitol Hill, where he briefed a small group of congressional leaders on the joint US-Israel offensive.'There absolutely was an imminent threat,' Rubio stated. 'And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a...

Conservative podcasting titan Tucker Carlson torched Donald Trump for his 'evil' attack on Iran as the president's MAGA base fractures over the Middle East war. Carlson has levied a rare criticism against the president following the US military's joint attack with Israel on the Iranian regime on Saturday morning. 'Absolutely disgusting and evil,' Carlson said to journalist Jon Karl.

Donald Trump's immigration crackdown is fracturing his own party, with Republican governors openly defying the White House over detention expansion as political fallout from the carnage in Minneapolis threatens to cost him at the midterms. Kristi Noem was rebuffed this week when she tried to build a new illegal migrant camp in New Hampshire by the state's Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte. Merrimack residents were outraged when it emerged that the Homeland Security Secretary planned to use their town to expand Trump's mass deportation effort. Ayotte, a moderate Republican governing a blue state, informed Noem that she would not assist in...

Reform UK will pledge to restore Britain's Christian heritage by stopping churches being turned into mosques and deporting almost 300,000 illegal migrants every year. Nigel Farage's party will today vow to create a British version of Donald Trump's US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit to deport up to 288,000 migrants per year. The 'UK Deportation Command' would have capacity to detain up to 24,000 migrants at any time and will run five deportation flights a day if Reform wins power, the party will announce. Zia Yusuf will outline Reform's plans for a 'radical overhaul' of the immigration system, with...

Victor Schwartz, 67, became the face of the battle to strike down the president's controversial tariffs when he sued the government last April. Schwartz has owned VOS Selections in Manhattan since 1987 and feared the tariffs would devastate his small business. He argued that the US President lacked the authority to impose tariffs without congressional approval, becoming one of the few dissenting corporate voices to publicly oppose the fees