Free Republic

Chapter 1: Government accountability Ladies and gents, how's it going? Have the snack bar Have the snack bar boys bitten off more than they can chew? Seems like they might have. I hope that they have because it seems like the locals have got the bit between the teeth. We've had a new plan unveiled by Mr. Law, which sounds fantastic. And even the mainstream media, the likes of the Daily Express, are pointing out the obvious that they might have started a ball rolling that they don't want to see where it ends up. Uh the migrant boat was...

Over the past two generations, something remarkable has happened across the developed world: People have stopped having children. In the United States today, the average woman is expected to give birth to about 1.6 children over her lifetime—far below the level needed for a population to replace itself, and the lowest figure ever recorded. Sixty years ago, at the end of the baby boom, that number was more than twice as high. The details differ from country to country, but the direction is the same almost everywhere. French fertility has fallen from nearly three children per woman to fewer than...

A former banker now with Treasury Department made a secretive trip, warning countries to end flights and cut off banks A top U.S. Treasury Department official hopscotched across the Middle East and Europe this month with a warning to Iran’s trading partners: You either trade with Tehran or Washington. The commercial strongarming is working.In recent days, Iran has seen its airlines cut off from critical regional routes and its top commercial bank stopped from transacting in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, both actions that came on top of longstanding sanctions and the continuing U.S. naval blockade.A growing distrust of...

As the first gunshot pierced the sound of crashing waves and children’s laughter, Rabbi Leibel Lazaroff instinctively hit the ground. Having grown up in Texas and trained to carry a firearm in his home state, he knew the noise of gunfire well. But the 21-year-old American couldn’t fathom that a shooting was unfolding here in Australia, a nation globally renowned for its strict gun laws. It would be another five to 10 seconds before many others at the Bondi Beach Chanukah by the Sea celebration realised that the loud bangs echoing across the waterfront of the country’s most iconic beach...

oments before President Xi Jinping climbed down the steps of his aircraft to be greeted by Donald Trump, US marines were filmed on their hands and knees smoothing out the red carpet, Chinese officials looking down from the top of the steps. It was an uncomfortable image, ridiculed on social media for the symbolism of kowtowing to the emperor. But it set the tone for a summit which so far has been heavy on pomp and ceremony, rich in platitudes, but with very little in the way of substance. A strong diplomatic case can be made for political fawning –...

A new international coalition of 14 countries, the “Shield of the Americas,” has been formed to target cartels and transnational crime in the Western Hemisphere. There is “an immediate and universally shared threat in our hemisphere,” posed by “transnational narco-terrorist organizations, which endanger the peace and security of our hemisphere along with the safety, security, and prosperity of our citizens,” they said. The governments of the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago have all signed a Memorandum of Understanding to target transnational crime, the...

Ever-higher costs to service mounting debt loads pose a major risk to governments around the world, economists have warned. Global debt rose by $10 trillion in the first half of the year to top $365 trillion, according to research published by the Institute of International Finance on Wednesday. State debts are rising as yields on medium- and long-term government bonds issued by a slew of the world’s biggest economies hit their highest levels in more than a decade — including in the U.S., Japan, France and the U.K. Rising yields reflect growing investor discomfort at rising interest rates, persistent energy...

It's the headline I've waited since I was probably seven years old to read: "US military spending $500M on ‘war-ready’ laser weapons — and zapping drones in Iran, along US border." That's 50 years, folks, and totally worth the wait.According to the New York Post — your go-to newspaper for words like "zapping" in the headline — "Iranian citizens have witnessed some dazzling laser shows recently," because "US military has been deploying lasers in the Strait of Hormuz to knock out regime hardware."The Department of War said this week that lasers disable "drones and incoming cruise missiles at a much...

An accused ISIS member has been arrested by counter-terrorism agents over allegations he instructed people how to plan and conduct mass-casualty attacks from his base in Australia.A police car in front of Victoria Police headquarters in Melbourne, Australia on Sept. 13, 2026. Courtesy of Tien NguyenThe Melbourne man, who the Australian Federal Police alleges was a propagandist for the Islamic extremist group, is accused of sending about 10,000 documents, messages, images, videos and audio files relating to executions and torture.The 65-year-old retiree allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS.The man, a Somali-born Australian citizen, is alleged to have acted on the behalf...

Firebrand MAGA loyalist Alina Habba is marrying a dashing and politically-connected Turkish billionaire 13 years her junior on Saturday - just eight months after her second divorce, the Daily Mail can reveal. New Jersey native Hanna 42, is slated to say 'I do' to 29-year-old Turhan Mildon, who hails from a powerful business dynasty and is a close ally of Turkey's hardline President Recep Erdogan. A gigantic diamond believed to be at least 23-carats weighed down Habba's wedding finger as she clutched what appeared to be a pink ostrich Hermès Birkin bag with an estimated price tag of $30,000. It...

Title: President Trump and the President of China Deliver Remarks at a State Dinner Channel: The White House Upload/context date: Around September 24–25, 2026 This is an official White House video showing remarks delivered by U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during a state dinner. It captures formal speeches or toasts from both leaders at the event.

In his September 24, 2026, address to the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Israel’s strikes on Iran and its conduct in Gaza, describing the years since October 7 as a seven-front war. Recalling the Six-Day War and his brother Yoni’s role in the Entebbe rescue, he repeated the refrain, “We have no other choice.” Delegates staged a walkout as the speech began, prompting Netanyahu to invite any remaining “moral cowards” to leave. He praised President Donald Trump, rejected accusations of genocide, and sharply criticized New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Qatar, and Turkey. He also voiced support for...

Clash over proposed DHS rule to charge $103,265 fee reignites spat over highly skilled immigration WASHINGTON—An industry group representing the country’s largest tech companies is urging the Trump administration to withdraw its proposal to charge companies $103,265 for most new H-1B visa applications, reigniting a fight between the White House and Silicon Valley over a popular program for highly skilled immigrants. The sector’s opposition, filed Thursday as a public comment on the Department of Homeland Security’s pending H-1B fee rule, is significant because tech companies—which consistently oppose tightening access to immigration paths—have almost uniformly supported President Trump’s policies of minimal...

The defense minister accused Erdogan of financing and embracing Hamas, and claimed that he dreams of "restoring the Ottoman Empire" in a post on X/Twitter. "Now he's signed the 'Mecca Agreement' to defend Saudi Arabia," he said, "But when the Houthis fired missiles at Mecca and it was time to honor his word, he vanished into thin air." "Israel is strong and knows how to protect itself. We're not the Kurds and the desperate people he still oppresses in Turkey today," he said

The Iranian regime is teetering on the brink. Their exports and imports have been cut off by the U.S. naval blockade. Their economy is in the dumper, with incredibly high inflation and long lines for whatever fuel people can obtain. On top of all that, the U.S. and its Operation Economic Outcast crew under Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent are turning the sanctions screws.Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, tried to make their case at the United Nations on Wednesday, claiming they weren't supporting terrorism. But his speech got booed by protesters. The U.S. delegation walked out on the remarks, and Secretary of...

There is a decisive shift occurring in European politics. It’s happening across nations – and parties. It lies behind the far-right Alternative für Deutschland’s victory in the Saxony-Anhalt state election last weekend. And it is the under-reported factor in the close general election being fought in Sweden this weekend. In almost every part of the continent, the politics of crime, security, migration and citizenship is driving governments to harden their borders and toughen their approach towards integration, especially when it comes to Islamism. On the centre-right, the Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker has outlined this week that he plans to bring...

Both their lives were ended by a bullet. But was the trigger pulled by the same finger? For 95 years, the death of Geli Raubal, Adolf Hitler’s niece, has been considered a suicide. However, new evidence may have added another victim to the millions whose lives were claimed by the Nazi dictator. Until now, Hitler has had one thing in his defence: an alibi that placed him in Nuremberg rather than his Munich apartment, where the 23-year-old’s body was found in 1931. But Harald Sandner, a German historian, said he had uncovered a “crushing mass” of evidence that placed Hitler...

Shareholders of The New York Times filed a lawsuit against the paper’s parent company on Wednesday morning, arguing the paper has failed to meet its obligation: to tell readers the truth and correct itself in a timely fashion when it doesn’t. The suit, filed by the State Board of Administration of Florida (SBA) and the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) in New York County Supreme Court, asks a judge to force the Times board of directors to hand over internal records the company has refused to produce for four months, the majority of which pertain to the paper’s...

On September 14, in an article in The New York Times about backlash to the documentary Naza, correspondent Isabel Kershner wrote that Israelis remained divided over the political and military failures preceding the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023. She went on to discount the criticism, writing, “But Israelis still largely view themselves as the victims of Oct. 7.” The sentence appeared directly after the article had already stated the plain facts — roughly 1,200 people killed and about 250 taken hostage — which meant the newspaper had the truth on the page and chose, in its very next sentence,...

Gas Prices Are Out Of Control. Here’s What No One Is Telling You.We aren't simply wasting money on Ukraine. The return on investment has been overwhelmingly negative.Conventional wisdom is that “high gas prices” are the result of the war in Iran, that they’re going to result in heavy losses for the Republicans in the midterms, and that the cost of living is going to remain high for the foreseeable future. This consensus view, while not entirely wrong, is actually a simplistic and very optimistic version of events. The truth is actually worse than what conventional wisdom says. The truth is...