Free Republic

Police are investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor over potential sex crimes, it is understood. Detectives are keen to speak to a woman who claims she was taken to the former prince's home in Windsor "for sexual purposes". And they are appealing for other potential Epstein survivors to come forward in a complex and potentially expanding inquiry that's expected to last for many months. Andrew remains under investigation and strongly denies any wrongdoing. Police have already spoken to a range of witnesses since the suspect was arrested, on his 66th birthday, in a pre-dawn raid on his new Norfolk home three months ago....

Single-sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog. But the long-awaited guidance also says that businesses and service providers have to offer practical alternatives such as gender-neutral toilets for people who do not wish to use services for their biological sex. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) document sets out how public bodies, businesses and other service providers should respond in practical terms to April 2025’s landmark supreme court ruling that sex in the Equality Act refers only to biological...

Britain would be forced to accept the European Union's refugee quota if Labour rejoins the bloc. Before Brexit, the UK was allowed to opt out of the EU's asylum policy. But now, sources have indicated rejoining the union would require the acceptance of all EU "acquis communautaire" - the complete body of common rights, obligations and legal framework by which which member states abide. Post-Brexit rules enforce quotas of relocated refugees, and governments which refuse to accept them are penalised by as much as £17,500 per person. Fresh fears were raised over rejoining the EU when Labour leadership hopeful Wes...

The Prime Minister sought to reassure the Ukrainian leader as questions remain about UK sanctions on Russian oil, which critics say have been watered down. Downing Street said the Prime Minister had “reaffirmed the UK’s steadfast support for Ukraine” in his call with Mr Zelensky and “set out our ongoing commitment to do everything possible to debilitate and degrade Putin’s war machine”. Sir Keir told Mr Zelensky that the UK’s efforts meant there would be “less Russian oil on the market, with Russia weaker as a result”, a spokesperson added. The call followed criticism of a “short-term” trade licence issued...

Campaigners have accused the Government of a “betrayal” after court papers revealed plans to keep hundreds of migrants housed in a Sussex town for up to four more years. The former cadet training centre in Crowborough was handed over to the Home Office earlier this year, with asylum seekers beginning to move onto the site despite fierce local opposition. Residents had previously been assured the camp would accommodate around 500 migrants for just 12 months. But documents disclosed in legal proceedings show the Home Office has asked the Ministry of Defence for permission to keep using the site until 2030....

The left-wing Labour Party government in Britain has refused to confirm that it is not using slave labour in its publicly owned green energy project, despite having passed a law last year committing to do so. The push in the UK to eliminate the use of fossil fuels and replace them with supposedly cleaner forms of energy may be coming with a hefty human toll, with it being unclear if the state-funded Great British Energy (GBE) project is using forced labour in places like China to prop up its so-called renewable sector. Following pressure from campaigners, after initially baulking at...

Andy Burnham could lead Labour to victory against Reform in a general election, polling reveals. The survey, carried out by More in Common, found that Labour would get an eight-point boost with Mr Burnham at its helm if he succeeded in his attempt to become the next party leader. The “Burnham bounce” would secure Labour 30 per cent of votes, three points ahead of Nigel Farage’s party which has consistently led the opinion polls since the autumn of 2025. This week, Mr Burnham was selected as Labour’s candidate to fight the Makerfield by-election, where he is tipped to beat Robert...

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) left open a GitHub repository named “Private-CISA” containing plain-text passwords, private keys, tokens, and secrets – with obvious file names like “external-secret-repo-creds.yaml” and “AWS-Workspace-Firefox-Passwords.csv” – for six months. GitGuardian researcher Guillaume Valadon, fresh off a recent talk on Kubernetes secret leaks, found the public repository on May 14, and told The Register that he “quickly understood that the leak was bad and that time was running out. A national agency having 844 MB of production infrastructure material in a public GitHub repository for six months is as serious as a secrets leak...

Reform UK is under fire after a key party figure criticised Labour’s free breakfast clubs, saying it is “parents’ job” to start their kids' days right. Linden Kemkaran, the leader of Reform’s flagship Kent Council Council, wrote on social media: “Sorry, call me old fashioned but I believe it’s the parents’ job to give their child the best possible start to the school day.” Free breakfast clubs provide a minimum of 30 minutes of free childcare and a healthy breakfast before the school day. The Department for Education (DfE) says they save working parents up to £450 a year. A...

The US vice-president, JD Vance, has urged anti-immigration activists in the UK to “keep on going” after tens of thousands gathered for a rally in London. Vance appeared to align himself with those who attended a march on Saturday where the far-right activist Tommy Robinson told supporters to prepare for the “battle of Britain”. Organisers claimed that millions had attended his “unite the kingdom” event, but police estimated the number of demonstrators to be far lower, at about 60,000. The campaign group Hope Not Hate nevertheless said the scale of Robinson’s movement remained “deeply worrying”. Addressing reporters at the White...

INTRODUCTION On April 29, 2026, Sen. Bernie Sanders convened a 75-minute panel in the US Capitol on “the existential threat of AI.” Two of the four panelists were Chinese government affiliates: Zeng Yi, Dean of the Beijing Institute of AI Safety and Governance, and Xue Lan, a Tsinghua University professor who chairs China’s national AI governance expert committee and serves as a Counsellor of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. From a US Senate platform, Xue called the US-China AI race “an inaccurate narrative” and argued for “safe zones” of cooperation on AI safety. The event was...

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed not to "walk away" from Number 10 and insisted that he will stay to "fight the next election". The Prime Minister refused to set out a transition timetable on Monday amid mounting pressure, with growing suggestions that he could face Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting in any potential future leadership battle. Asked if his time as prime minister had effectively come to an end, Starmer said: "No, we've got a lot of work to do. "I'm very focused on what I consider to be my responsibility, my duty, and that is to the country." It...

'The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department's intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,' said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. 'As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.' Donald Trump has reached a $1.8 billion deal with the IRS to dispense taxpayer funds to victims of 'lawfare' as part of a settlement in his case against the government. The President, his sons Don Jr and Eric,...

THIS is the shocking moment a UK phone shop worker offered to take £3,000 in cash in exchange for a small boat migrant crossing. Criminals are using a network of UK-registered businesses to receive payments for smuggling, a BBC Local documentary has found. The Smuggling Business: Undercover, available on BBC iPlayer from tonight, has exposed a network dealing with illegal Channel crossings. These businesses included a mobile phone shop in South-East London, alongside firms in Newcastle upon Tyne and Cambridgeshire. Going undercover to film staff at the shop in Woolwich, the BBC found that nearly £3,000 in cash could be...

Andy Burnham faces a perilous race to win the Makerfield seat, his allies have said, as he gears up to fight a byelection that could decide the long-term future of Labour and the country. The Greater Manchester mayor is likely to be confirmed as Labour’s candidate for the north-west constituency later this week, but those close to him say he faces an uphill battle to beat Reform UK. Nigel Farage’s party won more than 50% of the vote at the local elections and polling suggests Burnham is only marginally ahead. Reform is likely to focus heavily on immigration and Brexit...

A teenage stabbing victim bled to death on the street in Southampton after British police arrested and cuffed him rather than his alleged Sikh attacker, after the suspect claimed he’d been racially abused, according to court testimony. Henry Nowak, 18, a finance student at the University of Southampton, was walking home from a night out in December 2025, chatting with some friends on Snapchat, when he was encountered by Vickrum Digwa, 23. After a brief exchange, Digwa stabbed Nowak with an eight-inch Sikh ceremonial shastar blade, according to court testimony reported by BBC. A post-mortem examination showed Nowak had four...

A teenage stabbing victim bled to death on the street in Southampton after British police arrested and cuffed him rather than his alleged Sikh attacker, after the suspect claimed he’d been racially abused, according to court testimony. Henry Nowak, 18, a finance student at the University of Southampton, was walking home from a night out in December 2025, chatting with some friends on Snapchat, when he was encountered by Vickrum Digwa, 23. After a brief exchange, Digwa stabbed Nowak with an eight-inch Sikh ceremonial shastar blade, according to court testimony reported by BBC. A post-mortem examination showed Nowak had four...

French officials have openly admitted they have “no solution” to stop the flow of small boats crossing the Channel, dealing a fresh political blow to Keir Starmer after Britain agreed a new £662 million border enforcement package with Paris. The comments came despite Downing Street unveiling plans for expanded joint patrols, increased surveillance and the deployment of at least 50 riot-trained French officers to beaches used by migrant gangs operating along the northern French coastline. Local politicians in the Pas-de-Calais region dismissed the measures as cosmetic and warned the crossings would continue regardless of British funding. Alain Boonefaes, a deputy...

A post moving fast across X on Saturday claimed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “has announced he is standing down.” That is not the confirmed position. No official resignation announcement has been verified from Downing Street. But the reports underneath the viral claim tell a story that is almost as dramatic. According to a Daily Mail report from columnist Dan Hodges now circulating widely on the platform, Starmer has “told friends he intends to stand down and set out an orderly timetable for his departure.” That language is sourced to private conversations, not to a formal public statement from the...

Anthony Seldon has written biographies of each of the last eight British prime ministers. When he embarked on the project in the 1990s, the work was mammoth but measured. Then, the occupants of 10 Downing Street would spend several years in office, allowing him to scrutinize his subjects properly as they each stamped themselves on their times. But Seldon now risks being overtaken by events. After the recent churn of leaders under the previous Conservative government, which saw the party cycle through three leaders in one year, Seldon had hoped that Keir Starmer’s victory in 2024 would herald a return...