Free Republic

FIRST ON FOX - The price tag for the beleaguered Obama Presidential Center is now projected to top $1 billion, nearly triple its original estimate, the foundation overseeing construction of the Chicago facility told Fox News Digital. Confirmation of the 10-figure cost marks another chapter in the troubled history of the much-delayed project, which opened five years behind schedule amid controversy over its use of public parkland and claims that subcontractors were stiffed out of millions of dollars. It comes as newly released financial records reviewed by Fox News Digital offer a fresh look at the finances of the Obama...

FIRST ON FOX: A new White House economic report warns that immigration policies backed by the Democratic Socialists of America could cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade, as the Trump administration sounds the alarm over the potential financial consequences of mass amnesty and expanded federal benefits. As President Donald Trump touts 16 consecutive months without illegal immigrant releases at the southern border, a Council of Economic Advisers report estimates that mass amnesty and expanded federal benefits under Democratic Socialists of America-backed immigration policies could cost taxpayers between $440 billion and $613 billion over the...

Mourners living in Cyprus some 3,400 years ago may have burned bouquets of whole plants during burial ceremonies, according to the Greek Reporter. Charred plant remains were found in four tombs at Hala Sultan Tekke, the site of an ancient harbor city on the island's southeastern coast. Teresa Bürge of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and her colleagues detected burnt plant remains in two ceramic jugs recovered from one of the tombs. Analysis of the residues determined that one of the vessels held barley, several varieties of wheat, figs, lentils, marigold, chrysanthemum, mallow, and viola. A Mycenaean-style jar in another...

Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico was ruthlessly fact-checked by a Catholic voter during a Texas town hall Wednesday after he claimed the Bible doesn’t take a stance on abortion. Talarico, a Christian seminarian and state lawmaker, attempted to convince the self-described “one-issue voter,” Jody Hunt, that his pro-choice position is compatible with her faith because “the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion.” Hunt, respectfully, wasn’t buying it. She allowed Talarico to finish his point that “certain policy levers” — absent banning the procedure — can reduce abortions nationwide, before her mic-drop moment. “I just want to add that...

A young woman reported that she was raped in a frat house bathroom at the University of Chicago — as a group of men cheered “when’s my turn” and “let me in,” outside the door. The shocking report at another elite university fraternity house comes weeks after the “Cornell 7” gang rape allegations. The alleged assault at UChicago took place in the early hours of Sunday during a rowdy party at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house in Hyde Park, The New York Times reported. The woman, 21, was not a student of the university but attended the party alongside...

A sickle to the back! Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s allies are publicly breaking with him over his handpicked police commissioner — and Hizzoner is livid that the socialist House candidate he went out on a limb to endorse is leading the charge. City Hall staffers have been openly whining about alleged ally Darializa Avila Chevalier — whom Mamdani endorsed just a few months ago during the primaries — after she led a crusade to slam NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch after ICE agents shot an illegal migrant in the Bronx. “They were pissed about what she did on social media and her...

US Central Command on Wednesday announced that US Military forces destroyed an Iran-affiliated ship targeting US Navy ships in the Gulf of Oman on October 6. Two US Marine Corps Apache helicopters fired missiles at the dhow. Crew members were evacuated from the vessel prior to the destruction. Full statement from CENTCOM: On Oct. 6, U.S. forces destroyed an Iranian-affiliated dhow conducting surveillance and targeting U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Oman. Over the past seven months, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has continued to indiscriminately target thousands of civilian mariners transiting regional waters in addition to U.S. Navy...

The Russian Revolution — commonly conceived of as the communist overthrow of the Romanovs — actually took place over the course of two steps. First, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in March 1917. Then, that fall, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks decapitated the left-wing government led by the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries in what came to be known as the October Revolution. That’s the one that was celebrated as a holiday in the Soviet Union, and is now by socialists everywhere. Not the left’s triumph over the right, but the bloodthirsty left’s defeat of the far-left. History is repeating itself in the...

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered the remains of two colossal statues believed to depict Ramses II after a local landowner reported finding an inscribed stone block in the village of Behbeit El-Hagar. The discoveries were made by an archaeological mission from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). According to Dr. Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of the SCA, the first find was a stone head more than five-feet-high from a massive statue. It depicts a man wearing a double crown, a symbol of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt worn by ancient Egyptian rulers. Nearby, archaeologists found part of the statue’s...

Former Vice President Kamala Harris called for institutional changes to the Supreme Court and the Electoral College during an interview Tuesday, calling for more justices on the highest court in the nation. "The work that we can do about winning back the House and the Senate is going to be on a number of things. For example, I believe that we need to expand the Supreme Court. We need more justices on the Supreme Court so that we can have a court that actually reinforces the spirit and principles behind the Constitution of the United States," Harris told podcast host...

Iran's vice president for executive affairs, Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah, said Wednesday that talks with the U.S. require approval from Iran's top security body and the Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. "If the decision is to fire missiles, we will fire missiles on the orders of the commander-in-chief. If the leader deems negotiations appropriate, we will negotiate," Ghaempanah said, according to Iran International. Ghaempanah said all decisions must be guided by Iran's national interests, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The news agency also reported that Tehran is prepared to launch missile strikes if ordered by Khamenei but is open...

World's oldest shipwreck found off coast of Turkey - 14/Oct/2026 | 3:47 Mark 1333 | 62.8K subscribers | 2,989 views | October 14, 2026

Infamous J-6 instigator Ray Epps never served time for any crimes after the January 6, 2021, protests and riot at the US Capitol. Ray Epps was listed as #16 on the FBI Most Wanted List for a few days after the January 6, 2021 protests until he was removed from the list. Epps led the charge on the US Capitol and was up front when protesters broke through two bike rack barriers. And it was Ray Epps who pushed a giant MAGA sign at police, a crime that sent at least eight protesters to prison for several years. Yet, Ray...

It was a real head of state. An Egyptian farmer allegedly struck gold after inadvertently coming upon the remains of a royal statue of Ramses II — the pharaoh who allegedly challenged Moses in the Bible. The watershed discovery was set in motion after a villager reportedly uncovered a carved stone block while tilling the land in front of his home in Behbeit El Hagar, in Gharbia province, the Egyptian Gazette reported. He reportedly flagged the local antiquities officials, after which a team working for the Supreme Council of Antiquities launched an excavation, according to Heritage Daily. What they exhumed...

An estate sale purchase in Austin, Texas, became a potential public safety hazard this week, when one patron's box of items was found to contain World War II-era explosives, police said. Officers responded to a call Tuesday from a local resident who had discovered what appeared to be grenades dating back to the war among the contents of their estate haul, according to the Austin Police Association. A police bomb squad confirmed the grenades were live and active, meaning they contained explosive material and could potentially denotate.

Filmed inside the British Museum, this episode features renowned Assyriologist Irving Finkel, exploring the Library of Ashurbanipal -- the earliest known library in human history. Built in the 7th century BCE in Nineveh, this extraordinary library preserved thousands of clay tablets covering law, science, medicine, astronomy, religion, and literature -- including the Epic of Gilgamesh. Without Ashurbanipal’s vision, much of ancient Mesopotamian knowledge would have been lost forever. King Ashurbanipal, one of the few ancient rulers who could read and write, gathered the knowledge of the known world and created humanity’s first true archive -- laying foundations for modern civilisation....

Tim Mynett, the husband of embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), was spotted Tuesday for the first time since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) raided their Washington, DC, home – which President Trump suggested the couple shouldn’t be able to afford. Mynett, staring straight down at the sidewalk, was snapped walking the family dog – a yellow labrador retriever named Teddy – back to the home where Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents executed a search warrant and removed belongings early Monday morning. The raid is believed to be part of an ongoing criminal fraud investigation into the Somalia-born congresswoman’s immigration...

The US Treasury Department said Tuesday that it’s imposing $1.2 billion in fines on Bank of America for allegedly violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. The fines on America’s second-biggest bank amount to the third-largest in the department’s history. “When a bank of this size fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls, exposing the entire U.S. financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.” Treasury said...

A team of researchers appears to be closer than ever in the search for Amelia Earhart’s plane and remains, a mystery that has captivated the world for decades. Earhart and flight engineer Fred Noonan disappeared 89 years ago during an attempt to fly across the world. Earhart and Noonan took off from Miami, Florida, in May 1937. On July 2, 1937, Earhart and Noonan were supposed to stop at Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean to refuel but encountered difficulties and transmitted messages saying, “Gas is running low. We are flying at 1,000 feet,” and “Wait.” Now, researchers from Purdue...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Ilhan Omar’s staff helped get her birthdate changed in public records once the Minnesota Democrat was elected to Congress in 2018, a switch that has since spurred frenzied accusations that she misrepresented her age to secure US citizenship. The alteration could offer a big clue as to what federal immigration agents were searching for when they raided her DC home Monday: If the congresswoman is actually one year older than she’s claimed to be, that would mean she couldn’t have legally become a US citizen in 2000, critics contend. Omar’s birthdate had been listed in the Minnesota...