Free Republic

A stunned British man was set upon by police in broad daylight in Manchester city centre after simply walking along with a baseball bat he’d just bought – still sealed in its factory packaging. Shocking footage that has gone viral shows the scene unfolding near a Barclays branch, with a lone officer first grabbing the man before the confrontation spirals into a chaotic scuffle involving multiple officers, motorcycle units and a police van. The bat is clearly brand new, plastic intact. Owning one is perfectly legal. Buying one from a shop is perfectly legal. Walking home with your own newly...

The number of antisemitic incidents recorded across the UK since the start of the year is up by a fifth compared to last year, figures show. The Community Security Trust (CST), an organisation that provides security support to the Jewish community, recorded 1,926 incidents of anti-Jewish hate across the UK in the first six months of 2026. It represents a 21% increase on the number of similar incidents reported in the first half of last year. It also marks the second highest total of antisemitic hate incidents ever recorded by CST in the first half of any year since the...

FAITH FACTS Church of England attendance has remarkably risen for five consecutive years, reversing decades of decline Digital ministry through online theology classes, social media Bible studies, and café conversations is reaching believers beyond traditional Sunday services Britain’s spiritual renewal is manifesting in unmeasured ways that traditional church statistics cannot capture A surprisingly remarkable transformation is unfolding across Britain as the Church of England reports its fifth consecutive year of attendance growth. But the real story of spiritual renewal extends far beyond what can be counted in pews on Sunday mornings. For decades, declining church attendance in Britain seemed inevitable....

Elisabeth-Jane Ross, 38, was found stuffed inside the travel bag in an abandoned building last week. Greek police said a 26-year-old man from Afghanistan is in custody on charges of manslaughter, robbery and violating weapons law – though the exact details have yet to be finalised. Cops arrested the man on Thursday and hauled him to police headquarters where they say he “confessed to his actions”. He reportedly admitted his part in dumping Elisabeth inside a suitcase before hauling it to an abandoned site in Kypseli where she was later found. Investigations by the Greek police alongside the National Crime...

Over the summer months, 5 million people will visit London, with its free museums and galleries, massive events featuring the biggest names in music and sport, and everything Britain’s capital city has to offer. And, as new figures released today show, they’ll be able to do so knowing London is one of the safest cities of its size in the world. On social media, a dark blizzard of disinformation – much of it coordinated and amplified by extreme groups and hostile foreign actors – has seen bots and trolls depict London as a “lawless” city where crime goes unpunished and...

... Meanwhile, it has emerged that Britain failed to secure the backing of any of the 27 countries for its case that trade talks should start early in the two years of negotiations allowed by article 50 of the Lisbon treaty. The position will be announced at a Brussels summit on 29 April. Despite a recent whistlestop tour of EU capitals by the Brexit secretary, David Davis, diplomats concluded unanimously that the European commission was right to block any talks about a future comprehensive trade deal until the UK agrees to settle its divorce bill – which some estimate could...

Oli London @OliLondonTV King Charles visits new ‘eco friendly’ mosque in Cambridge, England. “The fact that you have a purpose built mosque here with a community center attached, makes a huge contribution, not only to the Muslim community here- but to Cambridge itself.”

A tiny village is taking a stand against its own government as it faces the threat of being overrun by migrants. The couple hundred residents of Piddington, Oxfordshire, in the United Kingdom, voted July 4 for independence against the United Kingdom in a bid against authorities who are seeking to flood the area with illegal male migrants. The vote to separate passed in an overwhelming 96 percent majority. At the heart of the problem for Piddington is the Home Office’s (the UK equivalent of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) June 26 decision to relocate almost 4,000 migrants to three...

German director Uwe Boll’s new hit movie Citizen Vigilante, in which (spoiler alert!) actor Armie Hammer shoots dead an entire family of Muslim immigrants in retaliation for one of their number’s brutal rape of a native white woman somewhere in continental Europe, has been controversial for many reasons: its violence, its alleged “racism,” and its supposed potential to inspire copycat crimes. An issue that should be causing far more controversy than the mere fictional vigilante violence depicted on-screen, however, may be the potential for real-life vigilante violence occurring off-screen, performed by Europe’s millions of imported Muslims. All over the continent...

Britons would face wartime-style rationing of meat, dairy, petrol and flying under plans being drawn up by the Green Party, which could be drawn into a coalition agreement with Andy Burnham's Labour. The extreme policies, being drafted by officials working for leader Zack Polanski ahead of the party's annual conference this autumn, propose state-controlled cuts of 50 per cent in the amount of miles driven by each person and a cut of 70 per cent in miles flown. The party admitted that rationing would have a 'whiff of wartime' and 'catch the front pages'. One motion being prepared calls on...

If you are attending the parade in the Champs-Elyséés, don't forget to wear your QR code - Liberté, égalité, cybersecurité! A pioneering example of the extension of "online safety" to real life. In hopes of deferring my next trip to Comaland, I am trying hard to comply with my doctors' instructions to eschew the Internet and commune with the birds and flowers. But some news insists on breaking through. I learn from my pal Dan Wootton, for example, that, of three Mark Steyn Show guests, one has been brutally murdered, another subjected to (so far) less fatal political violence, and...

The residents of the tiny village of Haytor Vale - where neighbours are accustomed to feeling so safe they can leave their doors unlocked - are a community in shock. Home to fewer than 200 people and nestled on the edge of Dartmoor, this peaceful valley is reeling with the knowledge that police suspect foul play in the death of the former government minister. Widdecombe was found dead on Thursday morning. As a police investigation and manhunt continues - and amid the tributes and grief - there is also whispered concern that a perpetrator could still be at large. "It...

British counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into the death of the former MP and Reform spokesperson Ann Widdecombe in a shock development that has renewed the debate over the security of politicians. Widdecombe’s body was found with serious injuries by the ambulance service at her home in Haytor Vale, Devon, at 11.40am on Thursday. A 28-year-old man from Rotherham is being held in custody on suspicion of her murder. In a dramatic change of position on Monday, counter-terrorism policing south-east (CTPSE) said it was now leading the investigation after officers at Devon and Cornwall police had earlier said...

Karim Khan, who is British, was named on Friday in an annex - not yet made public - to an executive order signed by Trump a day earlier, a senior ICC official and another source claimed. International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is the first person to be hit with economic and travel sanctions authorized by US President Donald Trump that target the war crimes tribunal over investigations of US citizens or US allies, two sources briefed on the matter told Reuters on Friday. Khan, who is British, was named on Friday in an annex - not yet made public...

You may remember the whole world going nuts in late May when the Free Palestine keffiyists, over 400 in this performative episode of catch-me-if-you-can posed heroism, staged yet another virtue-signalling flotilla to Gaza – Greta Thunberg mysteriously absent this time – bearing their token "humanitarian aid" of six tins of tuna and a few bags of potato chips. Once again, they were apprehended by the Israelis and treated like the maritime scofflaws they were. The sight of activists handcuffed and kneeling, and being mocked by National Security Minister Ben Gvir caused a global seizure of horror and near-universal condemnation. Turkey,...

YouTube's recommendation recipe might be getting a rather unexpected new ingredient.TL;DR -The UK is considering rules that would make trusted broadcasters, such as the BBC, easier to find on YouTube and TikTok during major news events and emergencies. -YouTube warns the proposal could force it to recommend certain news channels over creators’ videos, potentially reducing creators’ reach and making recommendations feel less personalized. -The proposal is still under consultation, with creators and the public able to submit feedback until August 31 before any final decision is made. YouTube’s recommendations are a big reason why many creators grow in the first...

The rise of Nigel Farage has prompted political leaders across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to game the unthinkable: the breakup of the United Kingdom. Unionists who wish to save the union and nationalists who wish to end it are bracing for constitutional turmoil if Reform UK emerges triumphant – with Farage as prime minister or official leader of the opposition – after the next election. Representatives from each side believe a Farage-led government could trigger a hasty referendum on Irish unification and usher in Trump-style anti-immigration crackdowns that alienate the Celtic nations. The possibility of a strong Reform...

Check out the utter state of policing in the UK. The guys surrounded. The mob circling him are clearly the aggressors. Right. So, he's being closelined to the floor, punched in the face. Guess who the female cop decides to tackle? Oh, you just knew it was coming, didn't you? The people who attacked him get away. Then this happens. I mean, fair enough. That was pretty dumb. Some people in the comments claimed he was just reacting and didn't even know it was a copper. I don't know about that, but if she hadn't charged into the wrong guy,...

Twenty-five inflatable boats capable of carrying 1,700 illegal migrants, which were being shipped to people smuggling gangs operating in the English Channel have been intercepted in Bulgaria. Customs officers in the Eastern European country, who work closely with the National Crime Agency to track and stop consignments of small boat equipment shipped through the country, made two separate seizures. Five boats were found in an HGV attempting to enter Bulgaria at the Lesovo border crossing after the NCA and Home Office International Operations shared intelligence with Bulgarian partners through the NCA’s international network. Then, two days later on Friday 26...

<p>Talk about High Crimes and Misdemeanors! Barack Hussein Obama, the Usurper to the US Presidency, now appears to be pulling out all of the stops.</p> <p>Judi McLeod of Canada Free Press reports that in the last quarter of 2009 Code Pink was in Egypt (after wending its way through Gaza to get there) and were later joined by domestic terrorists and ObamaFriends Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. They claimed it was a “coincidence.” Uh-huh. Sure it was. Were they assisting in planning the Egyptian revolution? Sure looks like it. Was Obama involved?</p>