Free Republic

US Navy ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz for the first time since the start of the war — as Iran threatened to attack any US vessels that entered the strait. “Several” American military vessels crossed the channel Saturday in a move that “was not coordinated with Iran,” Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported, citing intelligence officials. At least two were US Navy guided-missile destroyers, according to reports.

Sen. Mike Lee says the Senate is going right back at the SAVE America Act next week and he’s urging conservatives to keep the pressure on.“Early next week, we’ll be taking up the SAVE America Act again. We need to stay on it until it passes. SPREAD THE WORD!”That renewed push comes after Senate Republicans notched a procedural win Tuesday that puts the bill back on the front burner. The Senate voted 51-48 to advance the SAVE America Act by approving a motion to proceed, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only Republican voting no.Supporters say the SAVE America...

Comedian Bill Maher pointed to Vice President JD Vance’s recent remarks from a trip to Hungary during Friday's episode of "Real Time," suggesting the idea of Western civilization is real and worth defending. "Another thing JD Vance said is, ‘We will stand with you for Western civilization,’" Maher began, referencing comments the vice president made in support of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán while framing his government as a defender of Western civilization. Maher, speaking with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America founder Paul Rieckhoff and author Douglas Murray, said Orbán "goes too far" in some respects but added, "I...

While the SAVE America Act continues to languish in the Senate under the supervision of Republican Leader John Thune, leaders and voters in several states have taken it upon themselves to secure their own elections from noncitizen voting. ...***FloridaGov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s own version of the SAVE Act into law last week. The law, which requires citizenship verification against REAL ID data when registering to vote, will go into effect in January of next year.***MississippiMississippi Gov. Tate Reeves also signed election integrity legislation into law last week. Named the Safeguard Honesty Integrity in Elections for Lasting Democracy (SHIELD) Act,...

Visitors to Rome's Colosseum now have a new chance to step back into history thanks to a renovation project that's unearthed several entrance columns that have been buried for hundreds of years. Italy’s most iconic landmark has been given a remarkable new look. The Colosseum in Rome has undergone a major restoration, revealing parts of its original structure that have been hidden for centuries. New travertine marble blocks have been installed outside the arena, marking where grand entrance columns once stood. The project restores the monument’s perimeter and highlights details long buried underground, including original entrance numbers that guided spectators...

Spanish police recovered a 17th-century velvet guild manuscript that had been missing for a century after spotting it for sale online. The artefact will remain the property of its current owner, but it will now be conserved. The manuscript is a copy of ordinances signed in 1479 by Ferdinand the Catholic that elevated velvet-making from a trade to an art, granting the velvet-makers privileges and social recognition. Agents from the Heritage Group of the National Police Unit assigned to the Valencian Community found the document during routine monitoring of online sales of cultural goods, police said in a statement. The...

The New York Times reports, citing officials, that Iran may not have accurate records of the locations of all the mines it has laid. Reports suggest that the planting was carried out in a random and disorganised. The New York Times, citing US officials, reported that Iran is finding it increasingly difficult to reopen the Strait of Hormuz due to its inability to locate all the naval mines it planted during the recent conflict, in addition to the possibility of some of them being swept away by sea currents. ADVERTISEMENT The Strait of Hormuz crisis is a direct result of...

Finland is preparing to launch the world’s first permanent underground structure for storing nuclear waste, marking a major breakthrough towards finding a solution for one of nuclear energy’s most difficult problems. The Onkalo nuclear waste repository, is built deep inside 1.9 billion year old bedrock and is designed to store highly radioactive waste for up to 100,000 years. Authorities are expected to grant the facility a licence within months. A facility deep underground, hosuing thousands of tonnes of nuclear wast Onkalo (meaning “cave” in Finnish) will become the first facility to offer a long-term nuclear waste disposal solution once it...

A man is now behind bars and being charged with a fatal stabbing in North Carolina that left a U.S. Marine from SoCal dead. The deadly incident occurred on April 5, according to authorities in Wilmington, North Carolina. Around 2 a.m., the Wilmington Police Department responded to reports of multiple fights in the 1300 block of Corbett Street, which is located in the city’s downtown area. The investigation revealed that two people were stabbed, including Daniel Montano of San Bernardino.

The Orthodox Church begins with the human condition. Humanity turns from God, who is Life. The result is not a legal sentence imposed from without, but corruption arising from within. Death enters human existence as the intrinsic consequence of separation from God. Scripture names the problem plainly. “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23 (LSB) Death is not something the Father needs to be paid. It is what follows when creatures cut themselves off from the source of life. The question salvation answers, therefore, is not how God can be persuaded to forgive, but how humanity can be rescued...

Explanation: On flight day 6 (April 6) the Artemis II mission achieved a historic lunar flyby. Rounding the lunar far side, the deep space maneuver marked humanity's first venture to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Orion spacecraft Integrity reached a maximum distance of nearly 407,000 kilometers, and the Artemis II crew, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, set the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by any human since the Apollo 13 crew in 1970. From behind the Moon on flight day 6, a solar array wing camera recorded this space...

Dear brothers and sisters, Your prayer is an expression of that faith which, according to the words of Jesus, moves mountains (cf. Mt 17:20). Thank you for accepting this invitation to gather here at the tomb of Saint Peter and in so many other places around the world to pray for peace... In the context of the 2003 Iraq war crisis, Saint John Paul II, a tireless advocate for peace, said with deep emotion: “I belong to that generation that lived through World War II and, thanks be to God, survived it. I have the duty to say to all...

The U.S. military has launched operations to begin de-mining the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday. Centcom said in a social media post highlighted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that two Navy guided-missile destroyers began “setting conditions” for this mission on Saturday morning. The USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy have previously operated in the Arabian Gulf to help clear the strait of sea mines set by Tehran, according to Centcom. “Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to...

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) suggested Wednesday that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) should have less access to President Trump as the conflict with Iran persists. “I absolutely think he should have his Oval Office credentials revoked,” Cammack told Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manríquez as she departed the Capitol. Graham, a staunch foreign policy hawk who has openly supported the U.S. military operation in the Middle East, is a frequent guest at the White House and often travels with Trump. On Monday, he and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) met with the president and newly minted Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin — before the...

Iranian delegation led by Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf arrives in Islamabad for US talks, demanding a Lebanon ceasefire and release of frozen assets first. US VP Vance warns Iran against playing games. An Iranian negotiating delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, on Friday arrived in Islamabad for peace talks with the United States, Iranian media reported. The report stated that negotiations would begin if Washington accepted Tehran’s “preconditions." .....

A former Yolo County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant is one of five people charged with murder following a fireworks warehouse explosion that killed seven workers in the rural Northern California community of Esparto last summer, authorities said. Samuel Machado is accused of illegally having 1 million pounds of fireworks on his property at the time of the blast and using his law enforcement position to shield the illicit operation from scrutiny for years, according to the Yolo County district attorney’s office. Machado was placed on administrative leave following the violent July 1 explosion, which was felt by residents up to 20...

VIDEOUh-Oh! Eric Swalwell just got Fang Fanged out of the California governor's race. Many consider this Karma due to him Sing Singing top secrets from the House Intel Committee into the ear of ChiCom spy Fang Fang. Poor Swalwell. No more Fang Fang Bang Bangs for the rest of his life. Hear that Ding Ding at Sing Sing, Eric? That's the prison bell signaling dinner time. Mrs. Eric Swalwell better file for divorce pronto to get half what little is left of soon to be ex-hubby's community property (especially the Maryland home) before it all goes BOOM BOOM into smoke...

In yet another devastating blow to the already-imploding campaign of far-left California Rep. Eric Swalwell, American former pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager dubbed “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli has obtained explosive video footage showing the married Democrat congressman getting intimate with a mystery woman who is clearly not his wife.

Former vice president and failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris was roasted online Friday after she introduced another accent while trying to impersonate President Donald Trump as a "mob boss." "You know, the way that he's thinking of foreign policy, it seems, is when he talks about America First, it's to withdraw from these relationships and these connections," Harris said while arguing that the administration has lost sight of international cooperation as a means to address regional conflict. "And then he kind of acts like a mob boss. So, then he's kind of like, 'Oh, well, you know, you take Eastern...

Published in the April 3 edition of the Santa Fe New Mexican. Below text from NMOGA website I grew up in Carlsbad. I went away for college, but I came back as quickly as I could. Coming home was always the goal, and I’m proud to be back. I love this state. I love its people, its landscape and its stubborn independence. The oil and gas industry I represent is made up of people just like me: New Mexicans who were born here, who raised families here, who chose to build their lives and livelihoods here. So, I’ll confess that...