Free Republic

An exit poll puts the Greens ahead of the Christian Democrats by 1 point; but, the Christian Democrats and the third place Alternative for Germany (AfD) will constitute a clear majority in the state legislature.

Gas prices will dip below $3 a gallon “again before too long,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright promised Sunday — as he denied the US was targeting energy infrastructure in Iran. “The Trump administration has been all in on lowering energy prices, and I would say quite successfully,” Wright told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “We have seen a dramatic decline in gasoline prices, in diesel prices. Soon, you will see it in electricity prices as well.” The national gas price average is $3.45 a gallon as of Sunday, per the American Automobile Association. It was just below $3...

You have a 10 hour flight, which US president are you sitting next to?

VIDEOThe real life Gollum is much more full of rage and hate than any fictional version of him. And what animates the real life Gollum most is his extreme TDS. And why is his TDS so red hot? It is due to the overwhelming SUCCESS of President Donald Trump.

War is the continuation of politics by other means.” – Carl von Clausewitz Seven days into the U.S.–Israel war with Iran, the central question is not simply what has happened on the battlefield, but whether the strategy behind the war is working. In classical strategic terms, war must always be evaluated through the relationship between political objectives and military action. The Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz argued that the political objective determines the military means used to achieve it. The success of a war cannot be measured simply by explosions, missile launches, or headlines. It must be measured by...

Greens are projected to hold on to power, edging the Christian Democrats. Also, the Christian Democrats plus the Alternative for Germany (AfD) fall short of a majority; and, the Free Democrats fall short of the 5 percent threshold.

A Pakistani man has been convicted of planning to kill Donald Trump and other prominent US politicians. The trial showcased allegations of Iran-backed plotting on American soil. Asif Merchant, 47, was accused of trying to recruit ‌people in the US in a plan targeting Mr Trump and others after Washington's killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, during his first term. Then president Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, who ran ​against Mr Trump that year for the Republican presidential nomination, were also targeted in the ​2024 plot. ...

MOSCOW, March 6 (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday it would respond if Finland ​placed nuclear weapons on its territory, saying such a move would make the Nordic country more vulnerable. ‌The Kremlin reacted sharply after NATO member Finland said on Thursday it was planning to lift a longstanding ban on hosting such weapons, in a move that could open the door to placing them there during times of war. "This is a statement that leads to an escalation ​of tensions on the European continent," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "This statement adds to Finland's vulnerability, a ​vulnerability provoked...

Global oil prices could breach the $100 (£74) a barrel mark within days, and reach $150 a barrel by the end of the month, without a solution ​to the severe disruption in crude flows through the strait ‌of Hormuz, Goldman Sachs has warned. Oil exports via the vital trade route linking the world’s biggest oil producers to buyers in the global market have fallen further than the US investment bank had initially expected after the US-Israeli attack on Iran a little over a week ago. Goldman Sachs had anticipated that flows of crude through the strait would fall to 15%...

US Central Command (CENTCOM) issued a safety warning on March 8 to civilians in Iran, stating that the Iranian regime is endangering its own population by conducting military operations from heavily populated civilian areas.According to the statement, Iranian forces have been launching one-way attack drones and ballistic missiles from locations surrounded by civilians in cities including Dezful, Esfahan, and Shiraz. CENTCOM warned that the use of civilian areas for military activity places residents at risk, noting that locations used for military purposes can lose their protected status under international law and may become legitimate military targets. US forces urged civilians...

U.S. and Israeli airstrikes alone are unlikely to result in the ouster of the Iranian government, according to an expert in air campaigns, who said that the risks are growing for a more drawn-out war that could spread beyond the Middle East. Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who has studied air power for three decades, told CBS News 24/7 that history does not support the idea that bombing alone can unseat a regime and install a more friendly leader. "The fact of the matter is, for over a century, states have been trying...

Special bonus edition: Does Trump have a plan to avert an oil crisis that could end his presidency, or is it all just chaos and reckless brinksmanship? The pundits say chaos. Here's another take. Good morning, loyal C&C supporters, it’s Sunday— and if you woke up panicking about Iran, this post is your antidote. Welcome to Daylight Saving Time (DST). Change your clocks, and congratulations if you are like Michelle (i.e., certifiable) and love the extra hour of daylight after dinner in exchange for two months of jet lag and brain fog. Today we have an emergency special edition roundup,...

BOGOTA, March 8 (Reuters) - Colombians were heading to the polls on Sunday to elect a new Congress and choose three of the presidential candidates who ​will contest elections this May, a vote that will shape the next ‌president's ability to push through legislation and fulfill their agenda. Voters will choose from over 3,000 candidates to fill 102 Senate seats and 182 House seats, in an election analysts predict will ​be divided among some two dozen parties, likely forcing the next president ​to form a coalition government. ... President Gustavo Petro, whose term ends in August, has repeatedly questioned the...

Jesse Jackson's funeral was held Friday (snip) sitting with a bunch of other couples, Barack Obama once again went stag.(snip) So what's the excuse this time? Her absence at Jimmy Carter's funeral in Dec. 2024 was bizarre enough. Her excuse was that she was “on vacation” in Hawaii. She skipped Trump's second inauguration in Jan. 2025. Why? Her excuse was that she had nothing to wear. I’m not even joking. I could see her refusing to go to the Trump inauguration in protest, but skipping Carter’s funeral? Well, I know she’s not a big fan of white people, so maybe...

President Donald Trump is vowing to block all other legislation until the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act passes the Senate — his hardest push yet for a controversial bill which, among other things, would require strict voter ID in order to register to vote. In a Sunday morning post to Truth Social, Trump — while lauding pro-MAGA activist Scott Pressler’s appearance on Fox & Friends Weekend — threatened to use the talking filibuster (which would require Democrats to speak continuously on the floor in order to delay a vote) to push the legislation through. “Great Job by hard...

Japan's health ministry has announced formal approval for the domestic manufacture and sale of two products for the treatment of heart disease and Parkinson's disease using iPS cells. It means such treatments will be put to practical use for the first time in the world. One of the products subject to Friday's announcement is cardiomyocyte sheet ReHeart. It was developed by University of Osaka startup Cuorips to treat ischemic cardiomyopathy, a serious heart disease. The other is AMCHEPRY, a cell product for transplantation into the brains of patients with Parkinson's. The disease causes symptoms such as tremors in the limbs....

...“Only the Appointments Clause or the Vacancies Act’s exclusive structure may authorize service as a principal officer, and Lake satisfies the requirements of neither the statute nor the Constitution,” US district court judge Royce C Lamberth wrote in the ruling....

A cannibal who hacked a homeless Connecticut man to death before devouring his brain and “oyster-tasting” eyeballs stunned a courtroom by saying sorry to his victim’s family. Tyree Lincoln Smith, 35, stood up Monday seconds after being sentenced for up to 60 years in a psychiatric hospital to plead forgiveness for slaying Angel “Tun Tun” Gonzalez.“I’m really sorry for what I did, that I couldn’t be myself,” Smith told a shocked gallery. “It really had nothing to do with the other person.” His surprisingly candid confession sparked Gonzalez’s relative Talitha Frazier to break down in tears. “We waited two years...

Donald Trump is betting that decisive force—not endless stalemate—can topple regimes, realign alliances, and compress decades of history into weeks.“There are decades where nothing happens,” Vladimir Lenin is supposed to have said (but didn’t), “and there are weeks where decades happen.” Welcome to the beginning of March, Anno Domini 2026. One week ago, on February 28, the United States and Israel commenced an attack on Iran. At first, it seemed to be merely a ramped-up continuation of Operation Midnight Hammer, the raid conducted last June when the United States, following up on Israel’s preliminary attacks, destroyed (“completely and totally obliterated”)...

The largest increases in gas prices were reported in these states: Indiana — $3.448 (+64.0¢) Ohio — $3.399 (+62.6¢) West Virginia — $3.375 (+55.1¢) Florida — $3.407 (+53.7¢) Texas — $3.094 (+53.2¢) Colorado — $3.357 (+52.9¢) Iowa — $3.159 (+52.5¢) New Mexico — $3.247 (+52.1¢) Maryland — $3.456 (+51.6¢) Oklahoma — $2.922 (+50.8¢) Even considering these recent increases, California drivers are still facing the highest gas prices in the country, at $5.048 per gallon of regular gas. Washington and Nevada followed with a price of $4.557 and $4.119, respectively.