Free Republic

The head of a dissident Iranian Kurdish movement has told Newsweek his group is urging the United States to foster contacts with opposition factions in the Islamic Republic to undermine and ultimately overthrow the government.While not seeking armed support, Komala Party of the Iranian Kurdistan Secretary-General Abdullah Mohtadi appealed to President Donald Trump to establish a relationship that would help set the conditions for the unraveling of the Iranian government...However, while generally supportive of the Kurdish cause in other countries, such as Iraq, Syria and Turkey, Mohtadi was reluctant to frame Komala's current goals as being linked to the long-sought...

Every morning, millions of people take a vitamin D supplement, thinking mostly about stronger bones and a healthier immune system. However, quietly, at the cellular level, something else may be happening—something that could change how we think about aging.FotoHelin/ShutterstockA long-running study recently found that people who took daily vitamin D supplements for four years had slightly less shortening of their telomeres—a marker linked to cellular aging—than those who didn’t.While experts caution that the real-world health benefits remain unclear, the findings could shed light on the protective effects of vitamin D on specific aging-related diseases, the study authors noted.A Small but...

A new survey by the UN Population Fund shows that the most common reasons people name for not having more children are financial in nature.As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, among 14 countries surveyed, respondents named financial limitations or job instability as the most common reasons to have fewer children than they desired in all. Commonly, financial reasons, also including housing and childcare costs, made up the top 2 or even top 3 of the issues most often cited for lower fertility, for example in India, Indonesia, South Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Morocco, Hungary and Germany.You will find more infographics at...

GDP per capita is a rough proxy for a country’s average living standards. A higher GDP per capita usually reflects more economic resources available per person, a signal for prosperity.However, like all statistical measures there are caveats: it doesn’t account for income distribution, quality of life metrics, or how sustainable the economy is.Nevertheless, it is a standard that can be applied to make useful comparisons, while keeping these caveats in mind.So, what are the “richest” countries in the world? Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao ranks the top 50 countries by GDP per capita in 2025 using figures from the International Monetary...

Linda Ronstadt Live ’72-‘83 (42 vids, 2024 stereo mixes, best quality, no logos) 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:05 Long, Long Time (The Midnight Special, 1972) 00:03:20 The Fast One (The Midnight Special, 1972) 00:06:18 Love Has No Pride (A Concert: Behind Prison Walls, 1974) 00:10:35 Silver Threads and Golden Needles (A Concert: Behind Prison Walls, 1974) 00:12:55 Desperado (A Concert: Behind Prison Walls, 1974) 00:16:26 It Doesn’t Matter Any More (Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert, 1974) 00:19:49 You’re No Good (The Midnight Special, 1975) 00:22:35 When Will I Be Loved (The Midnight Special, 1975) 00:24:40 Heart Like a Wheel (The Midnight Special, 1975)...

The Walmart corporation “appeared to distance itself” from the billionaire heiress and activist who inherited her wealth from a son of the company’s founder, .. Christy Walton, one of the richest women in the country, was widely criticized by conservatives this week for buying a full-page ad in the New York Times promoting the “No Kings” organization that is coordinating hundreds of protests against President Donald Trump. The controversial “No Kings” ad had many calling for a Walmart boycott. .... Paid for by Christy Walton. Walmart heiress ... June 14, which is both Trump’s 79th birthday and the date of...

This evening 60 people arrested as they ran towards the steps of the US Capitol... Tomorrow nationwide protests in opposition to President... In Los Angeles US Marines deployed to protect the federal building... Through executive order US President Donald Trump approving the Nippon Steel-US Steel merger... Four detainees escaping from an immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey... At dawn in Israel..barrage of missiles...one dead and 19 wounded in Rishon LeZion south of Tel Aviv... Iran released a photo tonight saying it is of a downed Israel F-35I... Police in Northern Ireland using water cannon... Japan contacting China over an...

As they pounded the Iranian nuclear facilities yesterday, the Israelis were finally doing what so many Western leaders had expected they would do for years, if not decades. In fact, let us be honest: the rest of the world has not just been expecting this Israeli action. Secretly or openly, many governments have been hoping for it. In one astonishing operation the Israelis crippled the Natanz enrichment reactor and seriously damaged two others. They took out six of the most important Iranian nuclear scientists, as well as an astonishing array of the country’s top brass. They blew up radars and...

From the oral history collections of the University of Georgia. Recorded in 1983

It’s the wedding of the summer for high-society liberals. Former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her financier scion fiancé Alex Soros will tie the knot at a glamorous Hamptons wedding attended by panoply of left-leaning power players Saturday. Abedin, 48, the ex-wife of disgraced former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, will marry Soros, 39, the son of lefty billionaire investor George Soros, at the family’s lavish $14.5 million estate in Southampton. Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Clinton are on the guest list along with Barack and Michelle Obama and several European prime ministers connected to George Soros’ grantmaking foundation Open...

The largest male white shark ever tagged by the research group OCEARCH is close to the coast of North Carolina as it migrates northwards. Contender, a nearly 14-foot long adult great white male shark, was first tagged by OCEARCH in January 2025. He was first spotted off the coast of Georgia, then spent time near Florida. For the past several weeks, he has been moving northward, with his tracking device pinging multiple times off the coast of South Carolina and North Carolina. On June 11, his tracker pinged just 22 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras. OCEARCH said in...

A foolish tourist in Italy sat on a chair adorned with thousands of Swarovski crystals for a photo op, crushing the precious work of art beneath his weight. Instead of lowering himself and pretending to sit for the photo — like the woman accompanying him had done — security video shows a man deciding to go for it and sit down. The chair crumbled under his weight, as he lost his balance, trying to hold on to the wall with both hands so he didn’t fall. The woman came to his rescue, and the pair scurried out of the room....

The upcoming U.S. Army 250th anniversary festival is projected to cost between $25 million and $45 million, according to Heather J. Hagan, U.S. Army Public Affairs spokeswoman.

The site of Gordion, the capital of the Phrygian kingdom that flourished in west-central Anatolia between the twelfth and the seventh century b.c., is most notably associated with the legendary King Midas, he of the "golden touch." The ancient city is surrounded by as many as 85 burial mounds, the largest of which is thought to have once housed the remains of the king's father and the site's namesake, King Gordias. However, according to a report in Türkiye Today, archaeologists excavating another nearby mound believe they have uncovered the 1,200-year-old tomb of someone else belonging to that famous dynasty. The...

He Just Wanted To Ask Questions...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are co-sponsoring a bill that would ban discrimination against transgender military members.The Fit to Serve Act would prohibit the Department of Defense from banning transgender service members from the military and would ban the department from listing gender identity as a qualification for service.The Fit to Serve Act was led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and co-sponsored by other senators, including Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)

A federal judge in Maryland on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the authority to fire three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and ordered their reinstatement — teeing up another high-stakes court clash centered on Trump's ability as commander-in-chief to remove or otherwise control the members of independent agencies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox, a Biden appointee, sided with the three ousted members of the board — Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. — in ruling that their firings were unlawful and ordered all three members to be reinstated to their posts. In...

The California State Bar has reportedly opened an investigation into feminist attorney Gloria Allred's law firm over allegations it ignored the wishes of some of its clients, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The allegations stem from women who told the outlet that some of their wishes were ignored after hiring the firm to represent them in sexual misconduct cases and that they were pressured to sign settlement agreements before they were ready. Allred and her law firm Allred, Maroko & Goldberg have denied the allegations, stating that the firm has represented thousands of satisfied clients over the past 50...

DALLAS, Texas – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas joined the North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the FBI Dallas’s North Texas Child Exploitation Task Force to announce the conclusion of Operation Soteria Shield, a month-long collaborative enforcement effort conducted in April 2025 aimed at rescuing children from online sexual exploitation and bringing perpetrators to justice. This operation was run in conjunction with the National Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and was jointly managed by the FBI Dallas Division, Dallas Police Department, Plano Police Department, Wylie Police Department, and Garland Police Department

Ukraine’s SBU Built Secret Long-Range Drones to Strike Russian Bombers in ‘Spiderweb’ Operation. For the execution of Operation Spiderweb (Pavutyana), which resulted in the destruction of dozens of Russian strategic aircraft, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) deployed drones of its own design. Sources within the SBU told Kyiv Post that these UAVs are a unique development by the intelligence agency, incorporating advanced technologies. “These drones are a unique innovation by the Security Service of Ukraine, equipped with cutting-edge technologies that allowed them to be remotely operated in real time from thousands of kilometers beyond Ukraine’s borders. They successfully bypassed...