Free Republic

Israeli security officials were against the transfer of the drones, primarily due to the significant concern that Hamas might attempt to acquire the drones and employ them against the IDF Representatives from the United Arab Emirates made a request last week to bring five surveillance drones into the Gaza Strip in order to monitor vehicles transporting equipment destined for the field hospital they are establishing there. These vehicles were not carrying humanitarian aid, but rather specialized equipment for the hospital. During discussions with representatives from various Israeli government agencies, including the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Shin...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged not to repeat the mistakes made under the Oslo Accords by allowing the Palestinian Authority to return to Gaza after its military campaign to oust Hamas from that enclave is over. “One thing for sure I am not doing. I am not ready to delude myself to say that the defective act that took place under Oslo through a terrible error” must now take place a second time with the return of a “hostile entity” to Gaza and the West Bank, he told reporters on Saturday night. Netanyahu referenced the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s initial exit...

Fourteen Hawaiian school students are suing the transport department for infringing on their right to grow up in a healthy environment by polluting it with greenhouse gases. Ranging in age from 10 to 19, the plaintiffs claim they have been 'seriously injured' due to the government violating constitutional pledges to decarbonize the transport sector by 2045. Their complaint says global warming is threatening age-old agricultural industries in Hawaii, while rising sea levels are projected to wipe out entire communities within the plaintiffs' lifetimes. It also laments the emotional distress suffered by the young Pacific islanders - sparked by 'climate anxiety'...

If you’re of a certain vintage, you’ll remember how inflexibly tribal music fans used to be. If you were, say, an alternative kid, you wouldn’t dream of listening to anything the rock kids were. It just wasn’t done. Admitting you liked the odd Black Sabbath or Van Halen song risked jeopardizing your relationship with the other alt kids. And because you were already known as someone who preferred Joy Division over Judas Priest, the rockers would have nothing to do with you. Might as well go die on an iceberg somewhere. There are still silos among music fans, but they’re...

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney would rather cede power to Democrats than see members of her own party win in 2024, she said, calling a Republican majority a “threat,” and warning of an existential crisis leading up to next year’s election. “I believe very strongly in those principles and ideals that have defined the Republican Party, but the Republican Party of today has made a choice and they haven’t chosen the Constitution, and so I do think it presents a threat if the Republicans are in the majority in January 2025,” the Wyoming Republican said during an interview with CBS,...

The Republican presidential primary calendar won’t officially kick off until the Jan. 15, 2024, Iowa caucuses, but former President Trump’s dominant position in the polls has already sparked chatter about who could join him on a general election ticket. Trump is leading his primary rivals by an average of 60 percent at the national level and more than 20 percent in state surveys, creating a sense that the nomination is his to lose. Some have started to look beyond the primary calendar and toward a rematch between Trump and President Biden, with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and others weighing...

The Internal Revenue Service penalty for tax underpayments has nearly tripled since 2021, putting gig economy workers and consultants at the largest risk of having to cough up big bucks to Uncle Sam. As of Oct. 1, the IRS will now charge 8% interest on estimated tax underpayments, up from 3% two years ago, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Is Europe on the brink of another pandemic? A leading health specialist has sounded the alarm about the growing pneumonia outbreak in China. Dr Joseph Ambani, a renowned infectious disease expert has recently highlighted Europe’s vulnerability to a mysterious respiratory illness, which is currently overwhelming Chinese hospitals with sick children and leading to school closures. The Netherlands has already seen a startling increase in pneumonia cases among children which in turn has led to fears of a wider European crisis. Outbreak’s Uncertainty Raises Alarms In a statement to the UK’s Daily Express, Dr Ambani emphasised the importance of understanding the...

Explanation: These people are not in danger. What is coming down from the left is just the Moon, far in the distance. Luna appears so large here because she is being photographed through a telescopic lens. What is moving is mostly the Earth, whose spin causes the Moon to slowly disappear behind Mount Teide, a volcano in the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa. The people pictured are 16 kilometers away and many are facing the camera because they are watching the Sun rise behind the photographer. It is not a coincidence that a full moon rises just...

Roberto Escobar Gaviria, the older brother of the infamous Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, opened up in an exclusive interview with Greek Reporter which was held at one of Pablo’s last residences overlooking Medellin. Nicknamed El Osito (“Little Bear”), Roberto Escobar served as the former accountant of the notorious Medellin Cartel, which was responsible for up to 80 percent of the cocaine once smuggled into the United States. Asked by Greek Reporter what he has to say to the thousands of victims who suffered and died during the turbulent years of the cartel’s operations, he replied that: “We are the...

A blind golden mole that can swim through sand has been discovered in South Africa after being thought to be extinct for 87 years. A group of experts from the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and the University of Pretoria used DNA and a sniffer dog in a two-year search. They rediscovered the De Winton’s golden mole in the sand dunes of northwest South Africa. The rare De Winton’s golden mole hadn’t been seen since 1936. Before that, it was only found in a small area in Port Nolloth in the Northern Cape. These creatures, about the size of a mouse...

Julianna Margulies also claimed some authority on the LGBTQ+ community “As someone who plays a lesbian journalist on The Morning Show”The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies is facing backlash for her comments on the “Black community” and LGBTQ+ people in relation to the violent conflict in Israel and Palestine. Margulies had previously written an op-ed in USA Today condemning friends’ silence around recent Hamas attacks as antisemitism; her appearance on Andy Ostroy’s Back Room podcast expanded upon the subject, in a much more inflammatory manner. Her remarks have been deemed by some listeners as racist, Islamaphobic, and homophobic, as she...

Of all the members of Congress in all the districts across all the nation, as Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) might say, only Sen. Rand Paul was willing to throw down with Dr. Anthony Fauci. Sen. Paul, a medical doctor, has chronicled the conflict in Deception: The Great Covid Cover-up, and the signs were apparent from the start. CDC director Robert Redfield, a virologist of long experience, found evidence that Covid virus originated in a lab. Fauci, who is not a virologist, cut Redfield out of discussions on the origins of the Covid virus, which Fauci claimed arose naturally in the...

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that House Republicans should focus on issues and not an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, which he said was a “Trojan Horse.” He continued, “However, I think they run the risk of doing an inquiry that doesn’t necessarily lead anywhere while they’ve been ignoring a lot of the problems that our voters are talking about. When I’m going through Iowa, Republican voters are not fond of Joe Biden. Yes, they’re concerned about Hunter and all this money but they’re more concerned about what’s happening at our border. They’re...

An air strike kills at least five members of a pro-Iran paramilitary group in Iraq’s northern Kirkuk province, two Iraqi security sources tell AFP. The raid targets a site used by an armed group affiliated with Hashed al-Shaabi, a coalition of former paramilitary forces integrated into the Iraqi regular military, a senior security official in Kirkuk says without saying who had launched the attack. It came a day after the government in Baghdad warned the United States against “attacks” on Iraqi territory.

Have you ever been so passionate about something that it brings you to tears? For one otter-obsessed woman, the opportunity to meet these adorable animals in person was a dream come true. With her heart pounding and excitement building, she couldn't wait to finally come face to face with the creatures she had admired from afar for so long.

A case that could punch holes in the federal tax code heads to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The court will hear arguments in Moore v. U.S., which challenges a piece of the 2017 tax law that imposed a one-time levy on profits that companies had accumulated outside the U.S. But its implications could reach much further, providing the justices an opportunity to define what Congress can tax under the Constitution—and what it can’t. The case, brought by a Washington state couple seeking a $14,729 refund, raises a seemingly simple question: Must income be “realized,” or received, before it can...

Former President Donald Trump drew cheers at a rally on Saturday after touting his endorsement from a "representative of Black Lives Matter" (BLM). Earlier this week, activist Mark Fisher appeared on Fox & Friends to discuss his endorsement of Trump, with the show touting him as a "BLM leader." During his appearance, Fisher claimed that Trump has done "more for the Black community than any president I can think of in my lifetime" and decried the Democratic Party as "racist." On Saturday, Trump spoke at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he touted Fisher's endorsement, drawing cheers from the...

Although the eligibility of U.S. born citizens has been settled law for more than a century, there have been legitimate legal issues raised concerning those born outside of the country to U.S. citizens. From historical material and case law, it appears that the common understanding of the term “natural born” in England and in the American colonies in the 1700s included both the strict common law meaning as born in the territory (jus soli), as well as the statutory laws adopted in England since at least 1350, which included children born abroad to British fathers (jus sanguinis, the law of...