Free Republic

Illicit Iranian funds are flowing through U.S.-dollar clearing accounts, creating an enforcement dilemma for Washington As the Trump administration tightens its economic squeeze on Iran, it faces a surprising weak link in its campaign to cut off the regime from the global financial system: America’s own banks. Billions of dollars of Iranian funds are flowing through clearing accounts at American banks each year, Western officials and researchers say, despite sanctions that prohibit anyone subject to U.S. law from taking part in almost all financial activity linked to Tehran. Iran accesses the accounts through foreign partners that maintain relationships with U.S....

U.S. — The State of Massachusetts has officially been ruled incompetent by reason of insanity. The landmark decision, handed down this morning by the United States Supreme Court, has ruled that the entire state is unfit to hold trials, engage in civil service, or do anything else besides make clam chowder. "We find the entire state grossly incompetent due to being completely insane," announced Chief Justice John Roberts. "The entire state needs to be shut down and prevented from doing anything whatsoever until it gets help. We have ordered a large, large fence to be built around the entire state...

Rome authorities have tightened security around the Colosseum and other popular tourist attractions in the Italian capital due to a rise in crime. In late August, the area around the ancient amphitheater was officially declared a "red zone" - an increase in the presence of law enforcement officers and their powers were expanded. The special regime will be in effect until at least December 24, 2026, write CNN. The reason for the increased security was, in particular, a series of incidents in the Colosseum area. In July, about 50 young people attacked police officers using fireworks, as a result of...

A mega-dinghy carrying 140 migrants has reached the UK from Normandy after what is believed to be longest-ever Channel crossing by people smugglers. On Sunday, the French coastguard said it had detected the vessel, which was shadowed by a number of rescue boats in case it got into difficulties. It said authorities would not intervene at sea because of the risk to life with so many migrants on board. The launch site – a beach east of Cherbourg in the Baie de la Seine – was around 230 miles from Calais. It reflects a change in tactics by people-smugglers, who...

Scientists are weeks away from results that could either confirm or shatter one of history’s most enduring biblical mysteries.Noah needed incontrovertible proof. He got it. “And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.” (Genesis 8:11) Now, we need incontrovertible proof that his legendary Ark has been unearthed. >>>“Current data increases the likelihood that it is Noah’s ark with each passing day,” the archaeology professor told the Turkish news agency iHA.He is leading an international team...

Dr. Amy Acton, a Democrat running unopposed in her party's primary for Ohio governor, faces some steep challenges in the coming general election. She is trying to be the first Democrat in 20 years to win the office in a state that has become dominated by Republicans. Her presumed opponent, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, has national name recognition and a personal fortune that he is plowing into his campaign. But Acton's most formidable obstacle may be a ghost from her recent past: the COVID-19 pandemic. Acton, a physician, was Ohio's public health director when the coronavirus hit the United States in...

In defiance of medical advice to eschew the Internet, I am briefly out of my coma and attempting to catch up on world affairs. I see Operation Epic Fury has evolved into Operation Economic Outcast, as the US sanctions first imposed on Iran in, oh, November 1979 are apparently starting to bite. .. how's Operation Economic Outcast going? The picture at right is from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's summit this week in Bishkek. I doubt many readers have heard of Bishkek, possibly because until 1926 it was known as Pishpek. But I gather it's the capital of some no-name stan...

Video of the cargo plane that crashed at/near Miami International airport in Florida. Casualties unclear

... A Ukrainian arms factory had supplied the military with thousands of defective mortar rounds. But even as the officials noticed that weapons were arriving faulty, Ukraine’s Defense Procurement Agency continued to award Mr. Shyman’s factory new contracts. Seven of Ukraine’s top 10 military contractors won new business despite open criminal investigations for fraud, failures to deliver on earlier deals or the arrest of chief executives for corruption. Companies won contracts without demonstrating that they could supply the weapons, or without licenses to deliver them. Auditors identified 18 companies that signed deals despite defaulting on previous agreements. Six of those...

Exit poll shows Alternative für Deutschland on 44.4% of vote in Saxony-Anhalt after huge turnout, with votes still being counted

Residents of an upscale Queens neighborhood are enraged over a brazen serial squatter who moved into a local $1.1 million home — and it’s not the first time he’s pulled off the scam, according to a report. Accused con man Vernon Glass parked himself in the million-dollar home in the quiet, tree-lined community of Bayside more than two years ago, after the 2018 death of elderly homeowner and longtime resident Richard Klibschon, ABC Eyewitness News reported. *** The home at 2340 205th St. had remained vacant after Klibschon, who lived alone and had no family, passed away, according to the...

[Catholic Caucus] Ahead of ‘Amoris’ meeting, plans uncertain Some leaders are uncertain what to expect at an October meetingJust one month ahead of a global meeting of bishops in the Vatican on Amoris laetitia, some episcopal leaders have told The Pillar that they have not received information about what to expect or how to prepare, and are eager to learn the pope’s plans for the scope and approach to the discussion.The Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life published in July the thematic framework for an October meeting on Amoris laetitia, involving the leadership of bishops’ conferences from around the...

An attempted robbery on Sunday evening on Kanfei Nesharim Street in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul neighborhood ended in a shooting. According to witnesses at the scene, a civilian who was withdrawing cash from an ATM was attacked by a mugger armed with a knife. The victim pulled out his pistol and shot the mugger. According to the witnesses, the civilian finished withdrawing cash when the robber approached him holding a knife and attempted to take the cash. In response, the civilian pulled out his gun and shot at the suspect. The suspect, a 30-year-old man, was severely wounded. Magen David Adom...

There is an old Emerson, Lake, and Palmer song called "Welcome Back My Friends, To The Show That Never Ends". It is from that song that I chose the title to this thread. 😊 It also applies to this topic, for this could have run forever. Background: I engaged a fellow by the screen name of 'adorno', and for whatever reason, we ended up in peter-measuring contest, where he asserted that he knew more about me than I did about my chosen profession. He stated that he retired from computer development more than 20 years, whereas I am extremely current...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian cardinal writes foreword for pro-transgender book Cardinal Domenico Battaglia previously allowed an LGBT activist to address congregants during a ‘Te Deum Mass’ at the Naples cathedral. Pope Francis-appointed Cardinal Domenico Battaglia of Naples has written the forward for a pro-LGBT book on “transgender people.” Battaglia’s forward was translated by Elisa Belotti for New Ways Ministry, an LGBTQ+ activist group promoting the normalization of homosexuality and transgenderism within the Catholic Church. Battaglia’s words are carefully chosen, leaning towards the acceptance of transgenderism while failing to mention the Church’s explicit teaching on the subject. He wrote that we find...

With his 2004 box office hit “The Passion of the Christ” returning to theaters this month, Mel Gibson says the long-awaited follow-up will be a broader exploration of the world surrounding the biblical account of Jesus’ resurrection. “The Passion of the Christ” will return to theaters nationwide for a limited one-week engagement from Sept. 10-17. The landmark biblical epic has been newly remastered in 4K for the re-release and will include a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at “The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One,” which is slated to hit theaters May 6, 2027. First released in 2004, “The Passion of the...

The FBI's Most Wanted Fraudsters initiative notched its fifth arrest in just three months after authorities in India arrested Manjit Singh Bedi Friday, and the bureau is working to return the alleged SNAP benefits fraud suspect to the United States, Fox News Digital has learned. The FBI worked with Indian authorities to secure Bedi's arrest and is actively working to return him to the U.S. to face charges, according to the bureau. Bedi's arrest is the fifth through the FBI's Most Wanted Fraudsters initiative, which targets fugitives accused of major financial crimes. Launched in June, the initiative has led to...

The slur-spewing plane passenger who was duct-taped and zip-tied to his seat after an alleged mid-flight meltdown has been identified as an Arizona realtor. Layne Arthur Lundeen, 67, of Tucson, forced American Airlines flight 618 from Dallas to Newark to land prematurely in Baltimore after his obscene outburst Thursday night — during which the bigot hurled the N-word at a flight attendant and spouted anti-gay insults, according to police. Lundeen’s LinkedIn said he was a vice president at Long Realty in Tucson, however, his profile had been scrubbed from the site. Traveler Juan Mejia, a former law enforcement officer who...

🚨 HUGE JUSTICE WIN! President Trump just announced Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness and in reality the only witness in the New York AG and Manhattan DA witch hunts, has fully RECANTED. Not clarified. Not walked back. RECANTED. Pressured. Coerced. Said things that were not true. Trump is demanding every remnant of those politically weaponized cases be terminated and dismissed. Letitia James and Alvin Bragg built the whole thing on a witness who now says it was wrong and unlawful. Such a thing can never be allowed to happen again.

BERLIN, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged into first place in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, exit ​polls showed, putting a far-right party on the cusp of power at state level for the ‌first time since World War Two. The AfD won 44.5% of the vote, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives trailing well behind on 18.5%, and the centre-left Social Democrats and environmental Greens both clearing the minimum threshold to enter parliament, according to an exit poll from the ​ARD broadcaster.