Free Republic

Over the past few years, the F-35 Lightning II – the fifth-generation, Lockheed Martin wunder-plane set to eventually take over from almost every fighter jet in the US and UK militaries – has received a public relations kicking. It’s expensive – the total cost for the programme so far is an incredible, not-even-hyperbolic trillion dollars. It’s had some embarrassing technical stumbles – engine fires, a non-functioning cannon and a half-million dollar helmet that fits comfortably in the cockpit or on a pilot’s head (but reportedly not both). And while it’s designed as a multirole, do-everything plane that will see the...

Forget the American electorate. Donald Trump’s biggest fan may be a British businessman who likes to play the odds. John Mappin, a media investor who owns Camelot Castle in Cornwall, has placed more than 15 wagers, totaling more than 2,000 pounds ($3,100), that Trump will secure the Republican presidential nomination, if not win the presidential election outright. Depending on the type of bet (nomination or presidential victory) — and the odds at the time it was placed — the payoffs range from 7-to-1 to more than 30-to-1. If Trump indeed becomes president and Mappin wins every bet he’s made, he...

Germany expects to receive up to 800,000 asylum-seekers in 2015, a new record, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday, as he urged action from the European level on the crisis. "This development is a challenge for us all," de Maiziere told reporters as he announced the new official estimate. Berlin had previously expected 500,000 asylum-seekers to arrive this year. Germany, the EU's most populous country and top economy, has struggled to accommodate a flood of asylum-seekers from war zones such as Syria but also from countries without military conflict in southeastern Europe, including Albania, Serbia and Kosovo. ......

A man who hid under a sink from the Charlie Hebdo gunmen for eight hours has accused French media of endangering his life. Paris prosecutors have opened an inquiry into broadcasters' handling of January's police siege of the Kouachi brothers, who had previously killed 12 people at the satirical paper's offices. Graphic designer Lilian Lepère, 26, hid in a cupboard under a sink in the printshop where he worked in Dammartin-en-Goële, near Paris, as police laid siege to Saïd and Chérif Kouachi. ... Lepère's sister Cindy confirmed in an interview with France 2 that her brother was probably inside and...

After decades of decline, the Argentine air force — once one of the most powerful air arms in South America — has finally given up. In August 2015, the Fuerza Aérea Argentina retired its 16 Mirage supersonic fighters, fewer than 10 of which were actually in flyable condition at the time. That leaves the FAA with just subsonic jet fighters — 25 A-4s and 18 IA-63s. Buenos Aires has made noise about buying new Gripens from the United Kingdom and Sweden via Brazil, JF-17s from China and Kfirs from Israel, but the U.K. vetoed the Gripen idea and the JF-17s...

While Amelia and Oliver were the favourite names nationally, Muhammad topped boys’ names in London. And when spelling alternatives including Mohammed, Muhamad and Muhammet were combined, the traditionally Muslim name even overhauled Oliver as the national favourite boys’ name...The data, released by the Office of National Statistics, revealed that 6,649 boys born in 2014 were called Oliver, with 5,800 were named Jack. There were also 3,588 Muhammads, 2,536 Mohammeds and 1,116 Mohammads – a total of 7,240 babies.

Sharia Watch director and former UKIP candidate Anne Marie Waters has announced today that a forthcoming exhibition of Mohammed cartoons to be shown in London has been cancelled after discussions with counter-terror police.Writing for Breitbart London, Waters revealed the security services believed the event would be attacked, leading to a “very real possibility that people could be hurt or killed – before, during, and after the event”. The organisers of the event had approached over 200 galleries with requests to host the exhibition and were turned down by almost all of them. After the final gallery, which had initially agreed...

The skies above southern Britain echoed to the sound of massed Spitfires and Hurricanes today as the iconic aircraft took to the skies over south-east England to commemorate 75 years since the heaviest day of fighting during the Battle of Britain. The famous planes patrolled the skies once again after what was known as The Hardest Day, when the Luftwaffe launched a major offensive in a bid to wipe out RAF fighter command and achieve aerial superiority over the Channel. Just 600 RAF and Fleet Air Arm air crew managed to fly 927 sorties in an effort to stop 2,200...

Muhammad has become the most popular name for baby boys in the UK, the website BabyCentre has claimed. While Arabic names are on the rise, TV shows such as Game Of Thrones have also inspired names for the next generation. The list of the top 100 baby names of 2014 showed Muhammad has risen 27 places from last year to claim the number one spot for boys. The baby names chart ranks the names chosen by 56,157 BabyCentre.co.uk members who gave birth in 2014. There is a surge in Arabic names generally, with Nur a new entry in the girls’...

Last week the Argentine Air Force formally bid farewell to the remaining French built Mirage jet fighters, which saw combat during the Falkland Islands conflict in 1982, since in three months time they will be decommissioned after four decades service. The occasion was the 103 anniversary of the Air Force (10th August but celebrated on the 13th). Despite having extended the lifespan and flying hours of the few Mirages left, the repeated problems with the obsolete avionics only allows them to fly during day light with pilots keeping visual contact. Since the current administration of president Cristina Fernandez will be...

No surprise here. We have seen many times how converts to Islam get the idea that they need to turn against their own nation and their own people. This is only news because this phenomenon is so completely ignored and denied that Sally Jones’ actions appear to be anomalous.“ISIS jihadist dubbed ‘Mrs Terror’ who wants to BEHEAD Christians lived on church aid in UK,” by Rebecca Perring, Express, August 17, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): BRITISH terror recruiter Sally Jones – who once told of her desire to BEHEAD Christians – lived on church handouts in the UK...

A senior employee of Amnesty International has undeclared private links to men alleged to be key players in a secretive network of global Islamists. The charity was unaware that the husband of its director of faith and human rights featured in documents released after a criminal trial at which connections were revealed between British supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Arab Islamists accused of plotting to overthrow a Gulf state. Yasmin Hussein was also linked to a Yorkshire-based aid agency that was banned by Israel for its alleged funding of HAMAS terrorism…

Asked to plot themselves on a 'sexuality scale', 23% of British people choose something other than 100% heterosexual – and the figure rises to 49% among 18-24 year olds Invented by Alfred Kinsey in the 1940s, the Kinsey scale plots individuals on a range of sexual dispositions from exclusively heterosexual at 0 through to exclusively homosexual at 6. Where the original study had a large number of methods for placing people, YouGov simply asked people to place themselves on the sexuality scale.Taken as a whole, 72% of the British public place themselves at the completely heterosexual end of the scale,...

If you're like me and think that sometimes, politics is a spectator sport - especially when the outcome doesn't affect you - then you are going to love what's happening with the Labor Party in Great Britain. The venerable political organization is about to elect as leader a man who has called Hamas and Hezb'allah "friends," whose radical economic ideas are scaring the wits out of the financial industry, and whose bombastic and aggressive style turns off most voters. In short, Labor is about to commit political suicide by electing Jeremy Corbyn as its leader and is tearing itself...

According to a new YouGov survey, 49% of 18-24 year-olds in Britain define themselves as something other than completely heterosexual. The Kinsey scale invented in the 1940s placed people on a range of sexual preferences from exclusively heterosexual at 0 to exclusively homosexual at 6. In the YouGov study, individuals were asked to put themselves on that sexuality scale. In total, 72% of the British public scored themselves at the completely heterosexual end of the scale, while 4% were at the completely homosexual end, with 19% stating they were somewhere in between – classed as bisexual by Kinsey. One of...

As of Wednesday morning, nearly 40,000 people had signed an online petition calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on war crimes charges during his visit to the United Kingdom next month. The petition, created on the British Parliament’s E-petitions website, says, “Benjamin Netanyahu is to hold talks in London this September. Under international law he should be arrested for war crimes upon arrival in the U.K. for the massacre of over 2,000 civilians in 2014.” According to British law, the government must respond to all petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures, while a petition that...

Outside the island's main police station, about 50 migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran threw stones and exchanged blows as tempers boiled over in the intense mid-summer heat. Riot police stood by without intervening. The migrants have little chance of getting aboard the ship, the Eleftherios Venizelos, as priority is being given to Syrians, who are treated as refugees as they are fleeing their country's civil war and have greater rights under international law than economic migrants. All have crossed the narrow stretch of water from Turkey in small boats and dinghies as they try to find a better life...

For the first time in a long time, in her life spent in the public eye, Hillary Clinton looked like she was enjoying herself. The Democratic presidential candidate has had a fraught relationship with Iowa. After leading in the polls in her 2007 presidential race, she came third in the Iowa caucuses, trailing behind Barack Obama in what she saw as a personal defeat; a betrayal by the Hawkeye state. But on Friday night at the Democratic Wing Ding dinner - an annual event designed to energise state volunteers for the party – past grievances were set aside, as the...

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has pledged to block any future attempts by the UN to hit Iran with fresh sanctions. "When Resolution 1929, the last series of sanctions resolutions, was adopted… we made it clear behind closed doors to our US and EU colleagues that Russia will not let another sanctions resolution against Iran be passed," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Friday. Resolution 1929 was approved by the Security Council in June 2010, banning the supply of conventional weapons to Iran. It resulted in the suspension of Russia’s contract...

LONDON, United Kingdom – Today HM The Queen attended a memorial service in central London to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Japan in World War II. She was guest of honor despite the media having uncovered a plot to blow up the event and kill her. Her attendance at St Martin-In-The-Field church was in sharp contrast to President Barack Obama who did not appear to be commemorating American efforts to defeat the Japanese. Instead he chose to release a list of his favorite songs on the music website Spotify. A move that is likely be seen as disrespectful...