Free Republic

Iran and Oman are close to an agreement to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic that would see both countries collect a so-called “service fee” to cover environmental and security costs. The New York Times reported late Monday, citing Iranian and US officials familiar with the developing accord, that ships entering the strait from the Indian Ocean via the Gulf of Oman would be required to take a route through Iranian territorial waters. Vessels exiting the strait from the Persian Gulf would take a route near Oman’s coast along the south side of the strait. Iran’s Foreign...

OEM Bergen Engines has secured a contract to supply a 400MW power plant for a new AI data center on the US East Coast. Operating fully off grid in true islanded mode, it will be the first medium-speed reciprocating engine power plant in North America designed for AI-driven workloads. The installation will utilize 36 × 11.2MW Bergen medium-speed, lean-burn gas engines, each paired with Marelli high-efficiency alternators. The first batch is scheduled to ship in December 2025.

[Catholic Caucus] "Marriage Is Not an Ideal for Only a Few": Burke Challenges Amoris LaetitiaCardinal Raymond Leo Burke has called on Catholics to defend the sacrament of marriage and the Christian family even at the cost of suffering. Preaching on July 25 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wisconsin, the cardinal encouraged married couples to embrace their vocation as a path to holiness."The grace of Holy Matrimony is not an ideal to which only a few can aspire," he said, "but an objective reality, a supernatural gift, which leads husband and wife to seek each other's eternal...

Does every interview need to include a ritual denunciation of Donald Trump? New Yorker writer Helen Rosner interviewed Spanish actor Antonio Banderas about his role in the upcoming biopic about the late Anthony Bourdain, as you can see in "Antonio Banderas’s Acts of Faith."First Rosner praises Banderas for his outstanding performance in that film, as "Tony":

A high-ranking Westchester County police official who allegedly acted as her gangbanging son’s getaway driver at the scene of a Bronx shooting was fired Tuesday, officials announced. Jennifer Lackard was canned from her post as the deputy police commissioner with the Mount Vernon Police Department just hours after she was busted for allegedly chauffeuring her son after he pumped bullets outside the Bronx Criminal Court on June 29. Her immediate termination was directly tied to her criminal charges in aiding her 20-year-old son and “Slutty Gang” member. “Effective immediately, the City of Mount Vernon has terminated Jennifer Lackard’s employment,” the...

A socialist Dem running for Wisconsin governor became visibly uncomfortable and served up a word salad when asked whether she still stands by her call to “cancel Thanksgiving” because it is “celebrating colonialism.” At the height of the Covid pandemic, Francesca Hong, who is the frontrunner to become the Democratic nominee in America’s Dairyland, said that the beloved holiday needs to be scrapped, and that America “should have done this in 1621.”She added: “If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indegenous [sic] folx [sic] and...

This summer, the journal JAMA Network Open published a study that purportedly found that abortion bans were increasing the risk of suicidal thoughts among female high school students. This study analyzed four years of Youth Risk Behavior Survey data from more than 300,000 high school students. It has been covered by a number of media outlets, including Newsweek, the 19th News, and Econofact. Not surprisingly, there is much less here than meets the eye. The study purportedly found an increase in suicidal ideation among teenage girls who live in states with pro-life laws. However, there was no statistically significant increase...

JANGAON: A registered medical practitioner (RMP) has been arrested, while an auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) is absconding, for allegedly conducting an illegal abortion that resulted in the death of a woman after a sex determination test reportedly revealed she was carrying a female foetus. Police said the victim’s mother and the owner of a scanning centre, who allegedly facilitated the procedure, are also absconding. The victim, A Shravani, a resident of Kolkonda village in Devuruppala mandal, died on July 25 at Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad, after suffering severe bleeding following the alleged abortion. According to police, the procedure was carried out...

Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered state regulators to conduct a comprehensive verification and audit of all data centers advancing through the interconnection process before any additional projects are approved. Abbott said projects that fail to comply with state requirements, or with state law, must be denied connection to the Texas grid. The Monday letter, addressed to the leaders of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), cited “the failure of some data centers to comply with the PUC’s survey measuring water and power usage” as a reason for the new order. “[ERCOT]...

A KFC incident making headlines across Kentucky reportedly began with an ordinary inconvenience before taking a dangerous turn. A Lexington woman is facing a felony charge after authorities said she pointed an AR-15-style rifle at a KFC employee during a confrontation over a delayed drive-through order. According to WKYT, 33-year-old Nayda Roman allegedly became frustrated while waiting for food at the KFC on Richmond Road in Lexington. The reported confrontation happened on May 11, although Roman was not taken into custody until late July. An arrest report states that Roman exchanged words with members of the restaurant staff before leaving...

The Primary: As of August 2026, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is running in a highly competitive Democratic primary in Michigan against establishment centrist Representative Haley Stevens. Historical Potential: If he secures the nomination, he will be the first Muslim major-party nominee for the U.S. Senate. Winning the November general election would make him the first practicing Muslim to serve in the upper chamber. (Note: Former candidate Mehmet Oz, who ran in 2022, is a secular Muslim but did not win his election). If he wins, this means he used Israelophobia to Avance Islamization backed by the Hamas wing of the Democratic...

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor declined to halt $655.5 million in damages that Palestinian authorities were ordered to pay plaintiffs in a US civil lawsuit concerning terror attacks that killed and injured Americans in Israel from 2002 to 2004, during the Second Initifada. Sotomayor denied a request by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization to pause the judgment while they appeal a lower court’s decision to revive the case years after it had been dismissed. The lawsuit was filed by victims of attacks in Jerusalem that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more. The attacks...

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...

Detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement set a monthly record high for the second Trump administration in July, internal agency data obtained by CBS News shows, as ICE widened its crackdown, making arrests at airports, immigration check-in offices and communities across the U.S. Last month, ICE took into custody more than 46,000 individuals facing deportation because of alleged immigration violations, like entering the U.S. illegally or overstaying their visas, according to preliminary Department of Homeland Security figures. The statistics, which have not yet been publicly disclosed by the federal government, show that a summer enforcement surge by ICE continued to...

250 years ago, a new nation was born from the belief that freedom and opportunity belonged to the people. And, if necessary, was worth fighting for. Since then, more than 41 million men and women have answered the call to defend our freedom. This monument honors them. Standing tall in Washington, D.C., The National Military Monument™ is a living tribute to the generations of military members whose service and sacrifice made this historic milestone possible for our country.

The lobbying group has more than doubled its spending on political campaigns, while rarely mentioning Israel. It has placed a large financial bet on today’s Michigan Senate primary. In less than five years, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has become one of the biggest spenders in American elections, flooding the airwaves in congressional races across the country. Since its first involvement in elections, the amount of money AIPAC-affiliated political action committees have spent on campaign advertising and outreach to voters has more than doubled, from $29.3 million to $67.2 million, with much of it spent in Democratic primaries. The...

Even the bookie couldn’t believe the bets that Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter was throwing down. In the latest episode of a “30 for 30”-style documentary, “The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani,” the bookie for Ippei Mizuhara, who pled guilty to stealing millions from Ohtani, admitted to ESPN that even he was dumbfounded by the vast wagers that were being placed. “He was absolutely bananas, the amount of bets he was making,” bookie Matthew Boyer told ESPN in the podcast. “He was trying to dig out a hole, and that hole made him even poorer of a gambler because he’s betting big payout...

They didn’t love his swagger. Former Mayor Eric Adams got heckled and shouted down during a Wisconsin meeting as he tried to pitch locals on an AI data center, a wild video shows. The excruciating video — first reported by Hell Gate — shows the one-term mayor awkwardly introduce himself to the Wisconsin Rapids crowd, with his name met by an avalanche of boos during the Saturday meeting. “You belong in prison!” one attendee shouted, referencing Adams’ controversially dismissed federal corruption case. The cheesehead kerfuffle is the latest post-mayoralty headscratcher from Adams, who opted not to run for a second...

Foreign buyers pulled back from the U.S. housing market over the past year, buying $45.3 billion worth of existing homes, the second-lowest level on record, according to a new report. Foreigners bought those homes from April 2025 through March 2026, according to the National Association of Realtors 2026 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate report. That's a 19.1% decrease in dollar value and a 14% drop in the number of properties purchased from the previous 12-month period. International buyers purchased 67,100 properties, the second-lowest level since NAR began tracking foreign buyer activity in 2009. The median purchase price was...

Here name is Teresa Tran. She is a Mom, a Community Leader. She set her sights on running for Springfield City Council. Good for her. Except now Teresa had to file a Police Report, because some in the Democratic Party Don't like it, YOU KNOW, THE KING MAKERS?? Things are gonna get interesting. But don't stop there. Even any Republicans in Springfield who wants to run for office will get the SAME treatment from their party. It's the duopoly. It's a fight that must be exposed. Tired of the US 4 NO MORE, CLOSE THE DOOR.