Free Republic

United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that "it is possible" Russian President Vladimir Putin might have "territorial ambitions" beyond Ukraine. "I know one thing. He would like to settle. He would like to get out of this thing. It's a mess for him. He called the other day [and] said: Can I help you with Iran? I said no, you can help me with Russia," Trump told reporters while attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) summit. The US head of state remarked that he believes Putin is a "misguided" person, adding that he thought the settlement between...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in a video address on June 24, 2025. (Screen capture/GPO) In a video statement on Tuesday summing up the war against Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel “achieved a historic victory” that would “abide for generations” following the US-brokered ceasefire to end the 12-day conflict. He said Israel removed “two existential threats — the threat of destruction via nuclear weapons and the threat of destruction via 20,000 ballistic missiles” that Iran was moving to build. Israel would have faced destruction in the near future “if we hadn’t acted now.”

The Supreme Court left unresolved whether states can give primacy to biological sex over gender identity, a question that has divided lower courts nationwide, in its blockbuster decision upholding Tennessee's ban on medicalized gender transitions for youth, though individual justices in the majority promoted their own conclusions in concurrences. The most powerful nine jurists in America will consider whether to fill in the gaps from U.S. v. Skrmetti this week when, for the third time, they review petitions by West Virginia and Idaho to overrule courts that struck down their "fairness in women's sports" laws that prevent males from participating...

As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization held meetings on Wednesday, leaders from the bloc of Western nations agreed to spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense, NATO announced. According to a NATO statement, nations will commit to spending at least 3.5% on core defense requirements. These nations will allocate an additional 1.5% of their GDP to protect infrastructure, networks, and civil preparedness. Nations will be expected to submit annual plans on defense spending. Nations have until 2035 to reach the 5% target. Previously, NATO leaders agreed to commit 2% of their national GDP to defense spending. However, according...

Red in Tooth & ClawRacism, Eugenics & Other Bad Ideas from the Intellectual Descendants of DarwinOn July 21, 1925, John Scopes was found guilty of teaching Darwinian evolution in a state-funded high school in Dayton, Tennessee. He was fined $100. Scopes had ostensibly lost his battle with the state. But the side he represented was winning the greater war. I don’t say that because Scopes’s verdict was later overturned on a technicality. My contention is that the ideology he helped unleash on the public has been the source of more human oppression, suffering, and death than anyone in that Dayton...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – More than a month after a devastating fire in the hourly parking garage at Jacksonville International Airport, the BMW believed to have sparked that fire has been removed from the garage. A spokesperson with the Jacksonville Aviation Authority confirmed that a photo shared with News4JAX showing a fire-damaged vehicle being lowered by crane onto a tow truck is the BMW in question. About 1,200 cars were parked in the garage at the time the fire started. Nearly 50 cars were damaged, and hundreds of them had to be left there initially until drivers were contacted and told...

New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a candidate in the 2025 New York City mayoral race, has sparked intense debate with a striking pledge: if elected mayor, he would order the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he set foot in the city. In a recent interview, Mamdani articulated a vision for New York City that aligns its actions with international law, even in the face of federal resistance and the United States’ non-signatory status to the International Criminal Court (ICC). When pressed by the interviewer on what he would do if Netanyahu visited New York City during...

For the past 100 years, Egyptologists thought that when the powerful female pharaoh Hatshepsut died, her nephew and successor went on a vendetta against her, purposefully smashing all her statues to erase her from public memory.Now, a new study finds that's not quite the case. Although many statues of Hatshepsut were intentionally broken, the reason behind their destruction has nothing to do with her gender or even blotting out her existence, an Egyptologist says. Rather, Hatshepsut's statues were broken to "deactivate" them and eliminate their supposed supernatural powers...After Hatshepsut died, many of her statues were intentionally broken, including at the...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court handed a victory to the Republican-controlled Legislature on Wednesday in a power struggle with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The court, in a unanimous ruling where the four liberal justices joined with three conservatives, struck down Evers' partial veto of a Republican bill in a case that tested both the limits of his broad veto powers and the Legislature's ability to exert influence by controlling funding. The court also ruled that the Legislature can put money for certain state programs into an emergency fund under the control of its budget committee. Evers had argued such a move...

Today we wish June Lockhart, the veteran actress and television icon a Happy 100th Birthday! Naturally, we immediately think of June Lockhart for her roles as TV mothers. First there was Ruth Martin in Lassie, young Timmy’s (Jon Provost) Mom from 1958 to 1964. Ms. Lockhart replaced Cloris Leachman (who in turn replaced Jan Clayton). Then there was Maureen Robinson in Lost in Space, mother to Judy (Marta Kristen), Penny (Angela Cartwright) and Will (Bill Mumy) from 1965 to 1968. And, finally, Janet Craig, the surrogate Mom of sorts to Billie Jo (Meredith MacRae), Bobbie Jo (Lori Saunders) and Betty...

One of the copper market's biggest-ever squeezes is unfolding on the London Metal Exchange, as rapidly declining inventories push up spot prices. Spot copper traded at a $280-a-ton premium to three-month futures today, hitting the highest level seen since a record spike in 2021. The huge spot premium -- known as a backwardation -- signals a supply shortage, and it comes after a rapid drawdown in LME inventories over the past few months. Stockpiles in the LME’s warehouses serve as a buffer for manufacturers during periods of strong demand, while holders of short positions can also use them to close...

Police in Germany have executed more than 170 operations targeting people they referred to as “digital arsonists”. Starting early on the morning of June 25, officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office raided the homes of people suspected of running “criminal posts” online. The police move was not the first such in Germany, where it is flagged a “day of action”, targeting alleged authors of “online hate and hate messages”. This was the 12th time that the police took such nationwide action against so-called politically motivated crime (PMK). Two-thirds of those people whom officers hit had reportedly made right-wing radical...

Spain wants a carve-out from NATO's likely future defense spending goal of 5 percent of GDP, the country's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said ahead of next week's high-stakes alliance summit in The Hague. "Spain will continue to fulfil its duty in the years and decades ahead and will continue to actively contribute to the European security architecture. However, Spain cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP at this summit," Sánchez told NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in a letter seen by POLITICO. Spain has the lowest military spending of any NATO member, allocating just 1.3 percent of...

Pritzker will make his reelection campaign official with kickoff events in Chicago and Springfield, but it’s still unknown whom he’ll tap as running mate.

It is a defeat for Faeser and a victory for Compact, but in the worst possible way. Jürgen Elsässer in court with his wife and lawyer. (Photo credit: dpa).Last year, our then-Interior Minister Nancy Faeser banned the AfD-adjacent magazine Compact. It was one of the more shocking moves in her campaign to crack down on “the extreme right” by restricting the speech, travel and economic activity of political dissidents in the Federal Republic. Faeser’s ban included early morning police raids on the homes of Compact editorial staff, a seizure of all Compact assets right down to the office furniture and...

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued that the War Powers Act, a Nixon-era law limiting the president’s power to unilaterally wage war, is unconstitutional. President Donald Trump’s decision to order strikes on Iranian nuclear targets over the weekend was “clearly” within his powers under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, Johnson said. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, has introduced a War Powers resolution that would bar the U.S. military from “unauthorized hostilities” in Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued Tuesday that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, and vowed that a pending resolution...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that Israel sent agents to Iran’s Fordo nuclear site after US struck it earlier this week, insisting the attack was a success and warning that he was willing to strike again if Iran tried to revive its enrichment program.

If you assert the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan were taken exclusively to remove the capacity of Iran to create a nuclear weapon, you likely missing a key point. However, if you recognize the strikes were not only about eliminating Iran’s nuclear capacity but also about taking Israel’s “Iran has nukes!” card off the table, then you begin to understand the after action message from the Trump administration. Essentially, by removing the Iran nuclear threat, the overall influence from Israel on President Trump’s foreign policy objective is also lessened. Within that dynamic you will...

Today we wish June Lockhart, the veteran actress and television icon a Happy 100th Birthday! Naturally, we immediately think of June Lockhart for her roles as TV mothers. First there was Ruth Martin in Lassie, young Timmy’s (Jon Provost) Mom from 1958 to 1964. Ms. Lockhart replaced Cloris Leachman (who in turn replaced Jan Clayton). Then there was Maureen Robinson in Lost in Space, mother to Judy (Marta Kristen), Penny (Angela Cartwright) and Will (Bill Mumy) from 1965 to 1968. And, finally, Janet Craig, the surrogate Mom of sorts to Billie Jo (Meredith MacRae), Bobbie Jo (Lori Saunders) and Betty...