Free Republic

Cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan continued on Tuesday, with intermittent fighting reported along the frontier as Pakistani forces expanded aerial and ground operations under Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said 464 Afghan Taliban personnel had been killed, over 665 injured, and 188 checkposts destroyed as of late afternoon, with multiple military installations targeted across Afghanistan. Amid escalating violence, including strikes on Bagram and Khugyani bases and border skirmishes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, the United Nations urged both sides to halt hostilities and warned of the growing risk to civilians and worsening humanitarian conditions in the border...

On Sunday afternoon, protesters in Islamabad pressed shoulder to shoulder, most of them dressed in black, and chanted slogans that rippled through the crowd. “Death to America, death to Israel,” they shouted in unison. Among them was also Kazim Hussain, who clutched a portrait of Ayatollah Khamenei. The student, also an activist affiliated with Shia group Imamia Students Organisation (ISO), believes that the crisis unfolding in Iran was not a distant geopolitical conflict playing out beyond Pakistan’s western border. For him, it is deeply personal and emotionally moving.“This is not just an attack on Iran. It concerns all Shia Muslims,”...

President Volodymyr Zelensky is worried America and the European Union will forget about Ukraine as focus turns to the Middle East, and that the deliveries of advanced Western missiles will dry up as they’re needed to fight Iran, he told an Italian newspaper.The United States and allies attacking Iran “is right”, President Zelensky said, and brings certain benefits to Ukraine, but the brewing up of a war in the Middle East risks Ukraine’s defence because there is a limited supply of air defence missiles in the world, he has said. Speaking to Milan-published Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera as...

Utah leaders are aggressively pursuing nuclear power, but a controversial “poison pill” lingers: what to do with the dangerous waste. Now the state is exploring whether to become one of the antidotes for the nation — by potentially storing nuclear waste in the massive salt deposit in Millard County. Caverns carved into the salt dome already hold natural gas liquids, gasoline and other fuels. Separate storage of hydrogen began there this year. The Trump administration wants states to volunteer as hosts for “nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses” — sites that will take radioactive material for a variety of uses, like storage,...

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said this week that Doha has “no information” about alleged Israeli intelligence cells operating in the country, after US media personality Tucker Carlson asserted that Qatari and Saudi authorities had arrested “Mossad agents” (Israel’s foreign intelligence agency) planning bombings in both countries. Carlson made the allegation in a widely shared segment posted by the Tucker Carlson Network under the title “BREAKING: Mossad Agents Arrested in Planned Bombing Operation,” describing the purported arrests as an unreported “fact.”

Scandal-embroiled Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) on Tuesday was forced into a runoff election after weeks of backlash to reports alleging he had an affair with a former staffer, who later took her own life. He will face Brandon Herrera — a 2nd Amendment influencer who goes by “TheAKGuy” on social media — in late May. That sets them up for yet another expensive and prolonged contest like they experienced in 2024, when Gonzales prevailed by one percentage point. Gonzales, who has represented the west Texas district since 2021, has faced calls to resign from several of his GOP colleagues after...

TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida veteran who served in the U.S. Marines during the Persian Gulf War has lost his federal court case in his decade-long fight for U.S. citizenship — and now faces deportation to a country that may no longer claim him. Paul Canton, a retired U.S. Marine who lives in Ocala, was denied legal status by a federal judge, officially ending his years-long legal battle to become an American citizen. "I feel lost. I relied on the legal system so that they could go ahead and clarify the law and see what we saw,” Canton said. Canton...

I'm surprised it's been that long since an US Submarine has sunk an enemy ship using a torpedo. You wonder what the Captain and crew of that submarine were thinking when they finally fired a torpedo in a real war versus in training.

The White House repostedDepartment of War 🇺🇸@DeptofWar·36m https://x.com/DOWResponse/status/2029193589079613857 DOW Rapid Response@DOWResponse.@SECWAR “In the Indian Ocean—an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship, that thought it was safe in international waters.Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo—Quiet Death.The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War 2. Like in that war—back when we were still the War Department—we are fighting to win."

It shouldn't have been a difficult decision. During his Tuesday State of the Union address, President Donald Trump issued a challenge to the members of Congress before him. "If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support," he said. "The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens." Republicans stood and applauded. Democrats didn't budge from their seats. It was a striking contrast. Trump knew it, too. "You should be ashamed of yourself, not standing up," he told Democrats. Imagine telling someone a week ago that congressional Democrats wouldn't publicly...

TEMPLE, Texas — Voters across Texas are lining up to cast their ballots in the 2026 Primary election. This election, voters will not only choose their preferred candidates in state and local races, they will also have a chance to voice their opinions on multiple propositions, or policy questions. Both the Republican and Democratic ballots have numerous propositions for voters to decide on, which are intended to help guide the party's legislative priorities going forward. Republican ballots in Texas have 10 propositions to vote on, while Democratic ballots have 13. The propositions are non-binding, and are not votes to create...

An ‘Epstein Walk of Shame’ appeared overnight in Washington, D.C., with stickers dedicated to public figures associated with Jeffrey Epstein. On March 1, residents noticed star-shaped stickers placed around Farragut Square, each featuring an image of the convicted s- offender. On the lines of Los Angeles’ Hollywood Walk of Fame, each star on the Walk of Shame mentions the name and designation of a public figure mentioned in the recently released Epstein Files. Every sticker has a QR code, which, when scanned, directs users to the Department of Justice’s website page about the Epstein Files. Some codes link to pdf...

In today’s world, there are 193 countries in the UN. The large majority of those countries will vote consistently against the United States on measures that come before the General Assembly. Then again, the international system that counts is not the UN, but rather the U.S.-led commercial and legal order of alliances and trade. Almost all of the 193 UN member countries participate willingly in that system, to their great benefit. They may oppose the U.S. on many issues, and they may have disputes with their immediate neighbors, but they don’t make themselves constant troublemakers threatening to disrupt world peace...

Some Illinois lawmakers want to rebrand fentanyl deaths as “poisoning” instead of “overdose,” but coroners say the change would force them to lie on death certificates. Senate Bill 3014 would direct coroners and medical examiners to classify deaths involving fentanyl as “poisoning” instead of “overdose.” Under the bill, each fentanyl-related death would have to be reported separately to the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the department would be required to publish these fatalities distinctly in its monthly overdose reports, rather than grouping them with other drug overdoses. The bill’s sponsor Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris), says the change is intended...

US political commentator and journalist Tucker Carlson claimed on Monday that Saudi Arabia and Qatar had caught and “arrested Israeli Mossad agents planning bombings in those countries”. “Why would the Israelis be committing bombings in Gulf countries, which are also being attacked by Iran?” Carlson said on his show. “Aren’t they on the same side?” “Israel wants to hurt Iran - and Qatar, and the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, and Oman and Kuwait,” he added. Carlson also alleged that Israel deliberately sows chaos among America’s Arab allies. The American journalist did not cite a source for the claim,...

You may remember former Councilman Shakir Khan from his inspiring life story. When Shakir Khan immigrated to Lodi from Pakistan 23 years ago, he spoke no English. He and his family moved into a one-bedroom apartment on Lodi’s eastside. His father stayed behind to tend the family farm before traveling to America several years later. Khan began school at Washington Elementary on Lockeford Street, but he says he was bullied there by other kids because he didn’t speak English. As a young man growing up in Lodi, Khan says he became concerned that the local Pakistani community, mostly located on...

Iranian state media showed off a fleet of drones lined up inside an underground bunker as part of a chilling propaganda video. Footage, released by the semi-official Fars News Agency, shows the unmanned fleet sitting on rocket launchers and on truck beds, while dramatic background music plays in the background. Drones lined either side of an aisle leading down a brightly lit tunnel with a variety of Iranian flags.

A small cadre of activist judges and environmentalist litigators wields outsized power, crippling industries, mismanaging forests, and undermining America’s interests. With the world anxiously watching the conflict in Iran, it was no surprise that the first segment in the March 1 edition of CBS’s 60 Minutes featured an interview with Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last Shah. The second segment, however, returned to a staple theme of the CBS news team. It presented a perspective on a current issue calculated to discredit the Trump administration and its supporters. In this case it was threats leveled against activist judges...

CAIRO (AP) — A Russian-flagged tanker carrying liquefied natural gas exploded and erupted in flames before sinking in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, authorities in the North African country said Wednesday. No casualties were reported.The tanker was under Western sanctions, suspected to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet of energy tankers trying to bypass sanctions imposed on Moscow over its war in Ukraine. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. According to the Libyan Maritime Authority, there was a “sudden explosions, followed by a massive fire” on the Arctic Metagaz on Tuesday while the LNG...

A three-day state funeral for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has been 'postponed' hours before it was due to begin, Iranian state media reports. The ceremony was supposed to unfold this evening at the grand mosque in Tehran but, with Israeli and American strikes continuing to pound the city, will now be rearranged. Organisers claimed it was delayed 'in anticipation of unprecedented turnout', and reportedly want to wait until the necessary infrastructure is in place. Iranian TV reported: 'The farewell ceremony for the martyred Imam has been postponed. The new date will be announced later.' Hojjatoleslam Mahmoudi, head of Iran’s...