Free Republic

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis will vote in a pivotal election Tuesday as their country is embroiled in unresolved wars, still reeling from Hamas’ 2023 attack and deeply divided over the character of the state and the right person to lead it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces off against a coalition of parties seeking to oust the longtime leader from power. Opinion polls have suggested a tight race with his main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.In Israel’s fragmented parliamentary politics, no single party has ever won an outright parliamentary majority, so political leaders must forge coalitions. But in a tight...

A friend of mine is taking his wife on a European cruise that ends in Barcelona this week. He told me how much they love the Spanish city and how they’d normally stay an extra couple of days there before flying back. “Not this year,” he said, before stressing that they’re “gonna get outta there fast” because of safety concerns. We had this discussion before this weekend’s violent riots in Barcelona, in which hundreds of people (black clothing, masks, and Palestinian flags prominent among them) looted and damaged dozens of stores, injured at least 15 police officers, and set multiple...

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he was deciding whether to “make a deal” with Iran or “finish it off” as investors weigh heightened tensions across the Middle East. “Do I finish it off, which would be very easy to do, or do I make a deal? It’s getting to be decision time,” Trump said in a Fox News interview on Sunday. Mediators from Qatar, which has played a key role in efforts to negotiate an agreement between Washington and Tehran, visited Tehran on Sunday, per Reuters. It comes as attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants on Saudi Arabia continued over...

A University of California Merced professor of history and critical race and ethnic studies recently called for the “dezionization” of the UC system. Sean Malloy, who according to his faculty page researches “colonialism, war, white supremacy, and the critical study of Zionism,” writes in the Ethnic Studies Council at UC Substack that Zionism is a “driving force behind many of the external and internal threats to the UC and its faculty, staff, and students.” “Dezionization entails not only ending the UC’s complicity in the genocidal actions of the Israeli state (which would include divestment and the end of formal research...

The CIA contractor accused of leaking classified intelligence to his lefty journalist girlfriend could face 10 years in prison — all for posts that appeared to have netted just dozens of likes on her Substack. Ian Brinksman, 42, was accused of exploiting his access to sensitive US intelligence and acquiring reports unrelated to his duties — including sensitive intel on Israel — for the sake of passing them along to his romantic partner to help bolster her career, prosecutors claimed. While officials did not name the girlfriend, the intel involved and dates match up with at least five reports published...

U.S. intelligence officials are warning that Iran has intensified efforts to assassinate Americans overseas, prompting the Trump administration to reduce diplomatic staffing across the Middle East amid escalating threats from Tehran and its terrorist proxies. Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton issued an unclassified memo Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, warning that Iranian assassination plots targeting U.S. citizens have reached dangerous levels. “Lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages,” Clayton wrote. Clayton said Tehran has significantly expanded operations targeting American personnel abroad and warned that the danger extends beyond individuals currently authorized...

When Everything Is Genocide, Nothing Is: The Weaponization of a Word Against Israel.That same DSA found a new "genocide," this time in Cuba.Democratic Socialists of America Accuses Marco Rubio of ‘Genocide’ in Pro-Castro Screed. By Corey Walker. August 20, 2026 https://www.algemeiner.com/2026/08/20/democratic-socialists-america-accuses-marco-rubio-genocide-pro-castro-screed/Then there is Islamic bigot (since his 2009 sermon about non-Muslims as 'animals,' his 2019 minimizing Ilhan Omar's use of antisemitic tropes, his Feb 2025 "make American planes crash again" and in Oct 2025 Hasan's Nazi comparisons) Mehdi HasanGaza GenoLIE Campaign Traces 50-Year Anti-Israel Delegitimization Effort. The false genocide accusation did not begin after October 7. Its modern vocabulary grew...

China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, known collectively as CRINK, are seeking to undermine U.S. leadership by weakening the rules-based international order. Human rights violations and trafficking at the Alabuga complex in the Russian town of Yelabuga illustrate the increasingly complex ties among the CRINK regimes. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 created a demand for drones that Moscow could not initially meet. Its answer was an arrangement to manufacture the Iranian-designed Shahed on Russian soil. This report contends that the burgeoning labor force that powers the Alabuga drone factory has become a site of gross human rights...

US Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton speaks of 'lethal plotting efforts' by Iranian agents... "a planned terrorist act to kill our compatriots, our children, because of their skin color and religion they are given" ...French President Emmanuel Macron near the scenes of shooting attacks... Could the US attack Iran this weekend? "Absolutely" the word offered up... Ukrainian attack knocking out power to the city of Sevastopol... Two explosions in the Saudi capital with one attacking Houthi missile shot down... Fighting in southern Ethiopia killing nine people causing 2,500... At least seven killed, 34 wounded when gunmen opened fire at...

Gunmen attacked during funeral procession, state-owned TV says Witness says assailants fired for several minutes King says attack will be met with 'harshest retaliation' Authorities say extremists carried out terrorist attack UN chief condemns attack AL-MUSHAIRFEH, Jordan, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Seven people were killed on Friday when gunmen opened fire ​during a funeral at a church in Jordan, said the head of the country's Public Security Directorate, in a rare attack ‌on Jordan's Christian minority that authorities described as a terrorist act by extremists. Speaking at a press conference, Major General Abdallah al-Maaytah said most of those wounded in...

Brent crude oil rose to a six-month high on Friday, as investors increasingly expect the U.S. to resume strikes on Iran in the coming weeks. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. was not negotiating with Iran and something would happen “fairly soon.” His cryptic remarks came as U.S. officials told The New York Times that the U.S. and Israel have plans for fresh strikes on Iran after the midterm elections.

Before the Iran war, Qatar was one of the biggest natural gas exporters in the world. After only eight months, the Gulf state is now buying supplies from its principal competitor — the United States. QatarEnergy struck a deal Thursday with U.S. exporter Cheniere Energy to buy 4 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually through 2054. The purchase price is indexed to the U.S. Henry Hub price plus a fixed fee. Deliveries are expected to begin in the 2030s. “We look forward to reliably supplying QatarEnergy from both Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi into the second half...

There have been 27 attacks on commercial ships so far in October, according to the International Maritime Organization. There were 22 in March, as well as attacks on an offshore rig and two tugs, according to a list of attacks compiled by USNI News.Despite the number of attacks, ships are continuing to sail through the strait. There were 104 non-Iranian-linked vessels that sailed through between Oct. 5-11, during which there were 12 attacks, according to data from London-based maritime intelligence firm Lloyd’s List. Of those, six occurred on Oct. 11, according to the IMO.While Iran is at fault for the...

Six people have died and 28 have been injured after gunmen opened fire on a funeral at a church in Jordan. It took place at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak governorate, about 110 miles south of the capital Amman. A witness told TV channel Al Mamlaka that two men - one carrying a rifle and another a ‌pistol - opened fire for several minutes. The station said the men had got out of a vehicle before attacking the funeral at Hamoud church. Local reports initially said seven people had been killed, but Jordan's public security directorate later said there...

An internal document from the group that organized Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander’s trip to the West Bank describes Israel as "genocidal[SIC]" and engaged in "ethnic cleansing[SIC]" and says the trip’s goal is to build support for "international intervention" against Israel. The document, labeled "INTERNAL DOCUMENT: DO NOT SHARE OR CIRCULATE," is a set of talking points from Protect the Harvest, which recruits foreigners to help make Israel look bad as part of its smear campaign. Lander did his part, posting to social media that he had been "detained" by the Israel Defense Forces. Lander is the Democratic nominee for...

When first reported, 2025’s jobs reports added up to 1.2 million new jobs. After revisions, the economy added just 116,000 — 90% less.

Oil flows out of the Persian Gulf in October nearly returned to levels seen before the start of the Iran war, but traders remain wary about a fragile recovery. Total crude exports in the region, or flows coming out of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, recently recovered to within 10% of their previous levels in January and February, according to data compiled by TankerTrackers.com, a maritime intelligence firm tracking crude oil shipments (see chart below).

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatens to strike American bases across the Middle East if the US military continues to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz. “The US military must know that if this trend continues, the conflict will extend to its bases in the region,” the Guards say in a statement on their Sepah News website. “This is a serious warning,” they added. Iran claims control over Hormuz, a strategic shipping route through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies passed before war broke out in February. It regularly attacks ships that attempt to navigate...

“ The United States has begun reducing its military presence at several bases across the Middle East while ordering additional diplomatic personnel to leave posts in the region, as President Donald Trump considers launching another major military operation against Iran, NBC News reported on Wednesday. According to two American officials and two people familiar with the developments, the Pentagon has quietly relocated troops in recent days in response to continuing regional security threats, including those posed by Iran. The State Department is simultaneously implementing further staffing reductions at American diplomatic facilities, reflecting preparations similar to those undertaken before the war...

When an Iranian dissident proclaims that “the greatest killer of Iranians has been Islam,” the statement is less an exercise in academic historiography than a cry of immediate political exhaustion. Across the diaspora and within the quiet corners of Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz, a powerful counternarrative has taken hold. Confronted with the gallows, morality police, and institutional dogmatism of the Islamic Republic, many Iranians have turned history into a weapon of resistance. In this narrative, the seventh-century Arab conquest is not a distant chapter in antiquity, but the original sin of Persian history – an ongoing catastrophe linking the fall...