Free Republic

A historic former Catholic convent near the burial place of Saint Patrick in Northern Ireland was devastated by a deliberate fire Sunday night, forcing more than 70 firefighters into an overnight battle to save the adjacent parish church. The blaze, according to a report from Life Site News, broke out at the former Convent of Mercy in Downpatrick, County Down, at around 7 p.m. on June 28. By the time emergency crews arrived, the building was already engulfed in a well-developed fire. The Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service said the cause is believed to have been deliberate. No injuries...

Spain's plan to grant legal residency and work rights to undocumented migrants will be the largest scheme of its kind in European history. There have been at least 1.3 million applications made, more than double the 500,000 the centre-Left coalition government expected. The deadline for applications is on Tuesday. Pedro Sánchez, Spain's prime minister, said the amnesty was an act of justice but also of necessity, to continue Spain's strong economic growth and safeguard public pensions by bringing younger workers into the country. It began on April 16 and by mid-June 360,000 people out of 900,000 applications had been granted...

A shooting at a youth welfare facility in northern Germany on Monday left six people dead, police said. The suspected shooter was arrested. Five people – four women and one man – died at the scene of the shooting in Stade, police said. A sixth, also an adult, died later at a hospital. Police said several people were wounded, some of them seriously, German news agency dpa reported, but they did not give a specific figure or information on the victims’ identity. Police said the shooting took place in the facility on Dankersstrasse, a street south of the town center....

SNIP The leading candidate to win Nancy Pelosi’s seat in Congress was chased away from the city’s Pride March on Friday by an angry mob — a day after footage surfaced of pro-Palestinian agitator berating him inside a restaurant. A person filming Wiener walking through a park is initially heard complimenting the candidate, who is gay, on his actions on “trans issues” before launching into a blistering attack. “You’ve been terrible, you’ve been terrible on Gaza,” the person is heard yelling. “You do not belong here anymore, Scott. And it breaks my f—ing heart. It breaks my heart. It breaks...

Wiener caused anger in Jewish community after flip-flopping on the issue amid pressure from pro-Palestinian groups as he campaigns for CongressScott Wiener, the California lawmaker who earlier this month announced that he believed Israel had committed “genocide” in Gaza, is stepping down as a leader of the state legislature’s Jewish caucus. Wiener, a state senator from San Francisco, has been a co-chair of the caucus since 2023. He is currently running for Congress. In a statement released Thursday, he attributed his resignation from the caucus’ leadership position to both his campaign and the backlash over his Israel comments. He will...

Supporters welcomed the agreement as a step toward curtailing Iran’s influence within Lebanon, but others took to the streets, calling it a capitulation. After Israel and Lebanon signed a preliminary agreement in Washington on Friday aimed at establishing a lasting peace between them, the reaction in Lebanon was immediate and sharply divided.Supporters of the U.S.-brokered deal said it was a move to curtail Iranian influence in Lebanon, setting out a pathway for the disarmament of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, which Israel is at war with. They also said it asserts Lebanese sovereignty over the country’s internal security.Others, not least...

Wealthy nations with the highest rate of immigration over the past 35 years reaped a large economic benefit and many could still absorb more ​workers, according to research to be presented at a top European Central Bank conference next week. Political tensions ‌over immigration have been on the rise in recent years as far-right, anti-immigrant parties have helped drive the issue to near the top of the political agenda while making headway in countries including the U.S., Germany and Britain. The study, which looked at data in dozens of rich ​countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, said...

"You Can't Be A Slave To A Foreign Power— STOP!"TRANSCRIPT SUMMARYThe speakers argue that President Trump recognized the risks of escalating conflict with Iran but responded with public threats rather than a clear military strategy. They claim this made him appear weak, comparing his behavior to someone who boasts instead of acting decisively. Tucker Carlson is quoted criticizing Trump for being overly influenced by others, particularly Israel, and expressing regret for previously promoting Trump based on expectations he now believes were incorrect.The discussion praises Tucker Carlson as an influential commentator and argues that some of his remarks have been taken...

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte sought to calm tensions with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday, using a mix ​of flattery and gentle pushback to argue that instances of allies' reluctance to support the U.S. war with Iran were limited to "isolated cases." Trump, a longtime NATO critic who has called the alliance a "paper tiger," has been angered by allies' refusal to support the U.S. in the Middle East conflict or help reopen the Strait of Hormuz after a U.S.-Israeli attack on ​Iran on February 28 disrupted the major oil shipping route. During the Oval Office meeting,...

Denmark is planning to ban the Islamic call to prayer, with the country's immigration minister claiming parts of the nation risk sounding like 'a suburb of Islamabad'. 'It has no place in Denmark, and you shouldn't be in any doubt whether you've ended up in a suburb of Islamabad when you walk around Denmark.' The Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, is traditionally broadcast five times a day to summon worshippers to mosques, often through loudspeakers mounted on minarets. Bødskov's proposal marks the third attempt by a Danish immigration minister to establish a legal framework for banning the practice, following...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani last week tore off the mask: He’s going full-on antisemite. At last Thursday’s rally for his slate of extremist House candidates — Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez — Mamdani railed that we’re now living in a “time of monsters.” Who are these monsters? Though they “take many forms,” it’s … AIPAC. Yep: Per Mamdani, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is the heart of all evil; the only thing it fears more than democracy “is an end to genocide.” Reality check: AIPAC is an entirely legal political outfit that operates like dozens of other...

A fugitive accused of helping mastermind a $3.7 billion Medicare fraud scheme — one of the largest in U.S. history — is in American custody after authorities tracked him down in Turkey and flew him back to the U.S. to face charges, the FBI announced Monday. Ibrahim Khaldoon Hilmi was recently detained by Turkish authorities after he fled the U.S. in May 2025, the FBI said. The FBI's Critical Incident Response Group flew out to Turkey and transported Hilmi to the U.S. on Friday through a foreign transfer of custody operation. FBI Director Kash Patel hailed the operation as a...

Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson says he's "out" of the Republican Party moving forward, arguing the GOP no longer reflects his views.

The provost of Seattle University snatched a Palestinian flag from a graduating Muslim student just as she was about to unfold it at her commencement ceremony. Shane Martin suddenly grabbed the tricolor from Sumeyya Osman at last month’s ceremony, video shared by CAIR Washington shows – and she later claimed he was being aggressive. Martin grabbed the flag trying to hide it out of shot before the pair wrestled over it and posed for a picture. Then the provost held onto the student’s arm as he ushered her off the stage. Osman then brandished the flag as she made her...

French President Emmanuel Macron has shot down the idea of backing a collective European project to establish illegal migrant return hubs outside the bloc, after the EU Parliament paved the way earlier this week. Claiming that it is contrary to the supposed values of “Europe”, President Macron said that France will not agree to fund any EU migrant return hubs, nor will Paris seek to partner on an individual basis with a third-party country, as it will be allowed to under the new returns regulations passed on Wednesday in Strasbourg. Rather than allowing illegals to remain in EU nations while...

A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a three-year-old boy was left with critical injuries after ending up in a zoo's crocodile enclosure. Cambridgeshire Police said it was called to Johnsons of Old Hurst, near Huntingdon, at 13:24 BST. Andy Johnson, who runs the zoo, told the BBC his wife, Tracey, jumped into the enclosure to try to help the boy. A 30-year-old man from Norfolk has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and officers added they do not believe the man and child were known to each other. The force said it was investigating...

A federal judge ordered immigration officials to release the president of Wisconsin's largest mosque from detention Thursday, finding that Salah Sarsour has raised a "substantial" claim that he was being targeted for speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights. Sarsour, a Palestinian-born legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on March 30. The government has claimed he is a foreign policy threat, but Sarsour's attorneys say he was actually targeted for speaking out against Israel. U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon wrote in a decision Thursday that attorneys for...

In a stunning departure from decades of established US foreign policy, President Donald Trump revealed that a forthcoming peace agreement with Iran will likely allow the regime to retain its conventional ballistic missiles. Standing before reporters at the G7 meeting in France, the President argued that a complete ban is unrealistic because 'they got to have some.' 'What am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can't have them?' Trump said during the briefing. 'Missiles aren't the problem. They hurt a little location, but they don't blow up the planet.' A reporter...

The United States on Wednesday released the official text of the memorandum of understanding reached over the weekend with Iran. A senior US administration official read out the 14-point document, which spells out provisions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, easing certain financial restrictions on Iran and sets out expectations for addressing Iran’s nuclear program during future technical talks. Titled the “Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the document was released after outcry that its text hadn’t been released publicly. “This is fundamentally an agreement that allows us to open...

CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth all have voiced doubts about Iran’s commitment not to build a nuclear weapon. Rubio and Hegseth speak to press. Malcolm Ferguson. June 16, 2026 CIA Director John Ratcliffe and others within the Trump administration don’t think Iran is being serious about its promise not to develop or attain nuclear weapons, according to anonymous sources from Axios.