Free Republic

Strike on Terminal Autonomy plant appears to be first time in the war that Moscow has targeted a US companyA drone factory in Kyiv destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile on Friday was owned by a US corporation registered in Delaware, in what appears to be the first time Moscow has targeted a US company in the conflict.Terminal Autonomy makes precision “deep-strike” drones with guidance systems that are resistant to Russian jamming signals, according to a person familiar with the company.The phrase “terminal autonomy” refers to the final phase of a kamikaze drone’s attack in which AI takes over control...

The federal government is now acting as regulator, customer, financier, and shareholder. Decisions involving contracts, trade restrictions, permits, and additional subsidies can affect the value of its holdings. Competitors have reason to question whether the playing field is level. And if a portfolio company falters, Washington will have an added incentive to protect its investment with more taxpayer support.

A pod of killer whales has sunk another yacht off northwestern Spain, reinforcing a bizarre pattern of vessel encounters that has stretched on for more than six years along the Iberian coast. In the incident, reported Friday (July 24), the whales destroyed the rudder of a 46-foot-long Swedish-flagged yacht off Galicia in northwestern Spain, forcing the two people aboard to send a mayday call. A Spanish coastguard vessel towed them to safety... The incident came after several other encounters in the same waters earlier that week, including one in which a pleasure craft called the Idem sank near Estaca de...

Thousands of migrants pour into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta after crossing the border from Morocco. (Screenshot/Faro TV) Italy’s conservative government is considering extraordinary border controls as Spain’s socialist open-borders experiment erupts into chaos. The Gateway Pundit reported earlier that Spain’s border police were overwhelmed as thousands of mostly young men poured into the Spanish enclave from Morocco, forcing businesses to close and local officials to demand troops. Spain’s border with Africa descended into “absolute chaos” Thursday as thousands of migrants stormed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from neighboring Morocco. Videos from Tarajal Beach showed enormous crowds swimming...

A Christian mom and her husband are fighting back in court after Oregon’s Department of Human Services determined that they caused “mental injury” to her daughter by refusing to “affirm” her transgender identity. “It has destroyed our lives,” Nicole Calaway, the mother of two daughters who are now estranged because they both claim a transgender identity, told the Daily Signal in an interview Sunday. Child Protective Services took custody of her then-15-year-old daughter, K.A., on July 18, 2024, one day after Calaway and K.A. terminated the services of K.A.’s therapist, Jennifer Forster. According to court documents, Forster filed the complaint...

George and Amal Clooney have been forced to evacuate their home in south-eastern France as a wildfire burned nearby, his agent confirmed to Associated Press on Thursday. The Clooneys bought their hilltop estate, Domaine du Canadel, in Brignoles in the Var in 2021 and it has since become their primary residence. Last December, the French government awarded the whole family – including the couple’s nine-year-old twins – French citizenship. In a letter to Didier Bremond, the mayor of Brignoles, the actor wrote that while “at this point we have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible...

The Department of Commerce quietly announced*** it will designate more than $870 million in federal incentives for semiconductor manufacturing in exchange for a minority equity stake in seven companies. *** the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said Commerce’s CHIPS Research and Development Office signed letters of intent with seven companies to provide a combined $874 million in federal funding under the landmark CHIPS and Science Act. *** “The Department will receive a minority, non-controlling equity stake in each company as a condition for receiving the funds to enhance the return for the U.S. taxpayer,” NIST wrote. Up to...

A lawsuit has been filed over a deadly hydrogen truck explosion in San Bernardino County that killed a father of five earlier this year, with the victim’s family alleging the tragedy was preventable. Moises Perez died on Feb. 24 after a truck hauling compressed hydrogen cylinders exploded at a yard in Colton, according to the lawsuit filed by his widow, Ivena Perez. The complaint alleges Perez, a truck driver transporting hydrogen gas, reported a gas leak to dispatch before arriving at the facility. Rather than being instructed to stop, the lawsuit claims workers told him to continue driving the transport...

Flush with cash, Wall Street and Silicon Valley are vying to hire the same tiny pool of genius graduatesThere has never been a better time to be a math nerd.New college graduates and Ph.D.s are now securing million-dollar pay deals from elite trading firms seeking to secure the best and brightest amid fierce competition from artificial-intelligence companies.So-called quant firms, which use sophisticated mathematical models to come up with trades, have for years wooed top young talent with lucrative compensation that big banks struggle to match. Now, the AI boom is pushing those numbers even higher.Just a few years ago, early-career...

Cheektowaga parents of a two-month-old baby who died of starvation while in their care were sentenced to probation on Wednesday. Luis Gonzalez, Jr., 26, and Kitrina Udrea, 23, both of Buffalo, were sentenced before Erie County Court Judge James F. Bargnesi to five years of probation. On July 7, 2023, at approximately 2:42 p.m., police and paramedics responded to an apartment on the 2000 block of William Street in the Town of Cheektowaga after receiving a 911 call for an unresponsive child. The victim, 2 ½-month-old Londyn Gonzalez, was transported by ambulance to the former Oishei Children's Hospital where she...

SSPX is actually more faithful to Vatican II than the Vatican itselfLeo XIV and his Vatican actually reject certain key portions of Vatican II — on doctrinal development and ecumenism — that the SSPX accepts. When Leo XIV condemned the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) for refusing “to accept certain fundamental elements of the Church, beginning with various points of the Second Vatican Council,” most Catholics might have inferred that the pope considered complete acceptance of the teachings of Vatican II to be an essential requirement of the Faith. As such, it could come as a surprise to many...

Iranian security agents allegedly cut away skin bearing tattoos of Reza Shah and an imperial crown before killing a 21-year-old protester before later shooting him dead, according to sources close to his family. The sources told Iran International that Amirhossein Nobakht Pardasti was wounded by pellet fire and detained during the January protests at around 10 p.m. on January 8 near 30-Metri Street in Bagher Shahr, south of Tehran. They said he was taken to hospital, where agents used blades and box cutters to remove skin and flesh bearing the tattoos before shooting him dead in what they described as...

Sixteen-year old Yalda Mohammadkhani was shot dead as she fled with her parents and younger sister from masked security forces on motorcycles during protests in Tehran on January 9, informed sources told Iran International. Hours earlier, she was at the front of the crowd, chanting “Long live the Shah,” kicking away a tear-gas canister and urging fellow protesters not to be afraid. It was Yalda's second consecutive day protesting. On January 8, she had joined demonstrations in the Kanal area of Fardis, west of the Iranian capital, with her father and younger sister before returning home after heavy tear gas...

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu estimated the intense part of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran would last four to six weeks. It is now entering the sixth month without a decisive military victory or a diplomatic breakthrough. Now, as Mr. Trump weighs his next steps and the future of roughly 50,000 U.S. troops across the Middle East, two of Washington's closest regional partners are pressing the president with sharply different visions for how the conflict should proceed. The president received input Wednesday from his partner in this war, Netanyahu, as well as from Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin...

A discarded Falcon 9 rocket will collide with the moon at 5,400 miles per hour. A roughly five-ton piece of a SpaceX rocket that sent two lunar landers to the moon is about to join them, but not on purpose. On Aug. 5 at around 2:34 a.m. ET, the upper stage of a discarded Falcon 9 rocket will collide with the moon at 5,400 miles per hour near the crater Einstein on the western lunar limb, according to Bill Gray, who runs Project Pluto and develops software for tracking astronomical objects. Gray was the first to calculate that the object...

An announcement on Hamas’s agreement to a 15-point Board of Peace proposal that would see the gradual handover of the terror group’s weapons could come in the coming days, an Arab diplomat familiar with the negotiations said. But as reports amassed about an imminent deal, an Israeli official appeared to pour cold water on the optimism, saying that the 15-point proposal “does not adequately address” Jerusalem’s demands for the “complete demilitarization, [which is] a precondition for any process.” “There will be no IDF withdrawal from the Yellow Line in the Gaza Strip before Hamas is disarmed and the Strip is...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the NROL-95 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on July 30, 2026. Blastoff! SpaceX launches secret US spy satellites, nails landing in Florida | 8:59 VideoFromSpace | 2.14M subscribers | 5,359 views | July 30, 2026

Elon Musk, a year after a huge blowup with President Trump and the Republican Party, is said to be planning to spend in at least eight states to help them in November.Elon Musk, a year after voicing deep frustration with the Republican Party and threatening to start a third party, appears to be back in the fold and prepared to spend big in the midterms to help G.O.P. candidates.Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person, has authorized his super PAC to spend $100 million to $120 million on a new field program in at least eight states to help elect Republicans...

EXCLUSIVE – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking more than $470,000 in civil fines against a New York immigration attorney accused of filing fraudulent documents in support of asylum claims on behalf of dozens of clients, alleging he submitted more than 100 documents containing nearly identical accounts of persecution. Homeland Security Investigations announced it had issued a notice of intent to fine attorney Suraj Raj Singh, whose nationwide practice primarily represents Indian nationals seeking asylum before immigration courts, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICE alleges Singh prepared and filed 118 fraudulent documents in 54 immigration...

The "Shawshank Redemption" star said he turned to the Amazonian psychedelic brew with one goal in mind — to stop being "consumed" by outrage over what he sees as the unraveling of modern society. Robbins said his psychedelic experience was an intense spiritual journey that included what he described as an encounter with his late mother. "What she said was, 'You're injured. You're a warrior, and you're injured and you need to rest, but the fight's not over,'" Robbins recalled. "I was battling my frustration with the dissolution of society, people being angry at each other over ridiculous things, long...