Free Republic

Israel has struck hard against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, and this time they made it personal; they didn't go after weapons caches or logistics, instead targeting Hezbollah's members and leaders directly, in an attack that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has done more damage than the famous 2024 pager attacks. That's serious stuff.Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terrorist group, saw its command structure across Lebanon come under what Israeli officials described as one of the most devastating blows of the war April 8.Nearly simultaneously, explosions tore through Beirut, Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley and southern Lebanon as roughly 50 Israeli aircraft struck more...

Files hidden in satellite TV broadcasts keep information flowing.On 8 January 2026, the Iranian government imposed a near-total communications shutdown. It was the country’s first full information blackout: For weeks, the internet was off across all provinces while services including the government-run intranet, VPNs, text messaging, mobile calls, and even landlines were severely throttled. It was an unprecedented lockdown that left more than 90 million people cut off not only from the world, but from one another. Since then, connectivity has never fully returned. Following U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in late February, Iran again imposed near-total restrictions, and people inside...

Democrat, democratic socialist, communist... however you want to slice it, New York is run by some of the most far-Left lunatics in the country. And they chose Tax Day to remind us of that once again.What are they doing now? New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced a new surcharge (read: tax) for anyone who owns residential property worth $5 million or more, but is not a resident of New York City. They're calling it the pied-à-terre tax:If you can afford a multi-million dollar second home in New York City, you can afford to join its residents in supporting the...

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship as we have known it. The court’s eventual opinion in the case, Trump v. Barbara, will almost certainly hinge on how the justices interpret the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” The court will probably also respond to the first words of the president’s March 19 brief, which asserts that...

"ODNI can confirm a criminal referral was sent to DOJ related to one or more former employees of the Intelligence Community and their role in the 2019 impeachment of President Trump," an ODNI spokesperson told Just The News. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday referred the 2019 Ukraine impeachment whistleblower against Donald Trump, as well as the former intelligence community inspector general, for criminal investigation by the Justice Department, officials told Just The News. The criminal referrals were sent to the Justice Department just four days after Gabbard declassified intelligence that the CIA analyst who filed against Trump...

Iran used the satellite to monitor major U.S. military sites. Satellite imagery was taken in March prior to drone and missile strikes on the sites. Iran secretly purchased a spy satellite from China in 2024, which it then used to target U.S. bases. According to the Financial Times, Earth Eye Co, a Chinese company, built and launched a TEE-01B satellite in 2024. After it was launched into space from China, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Corp purchased the satellite, leaked Iranian military documents show. Iran used the satellite to monitor major U.S. military sites. Satellite imagery was taken in...

Eric Swalwell has dropped out of the race for California Governor after a series of sexual misconduct allegations. Republicans may be celebrating the demise of the prominent Democrat, but they should hold off on the champagne for now. Swalwell’s exit only increases the chance of two Democrats moving through to the run-off, depriving the GOP of a place on the ticket. However some Republicans still believe that the two GOP candidates in the race – Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco – can make it through California’s jungle primary and face each other in November. While it sounds exciting and makes...

Happiest of birthdays (April 12) to one of the sweetest and most courageous people I know. This photo is of Tulsi at just 2 years old—full of light, joy, and that same strong spirit we all know today. So proud of the woman she’s become. Happy birthday, Tulsi. 🤙💖

Nearly three in five Canadians support the idea of Canada joining the European Union, a new poll suggests. A Nanos Research survey conducted for The Globe and Mail shows that 57 per cent of respondents would either support (28 per cent) or somewhat support (29 per cent) Canada becoming a full member of the EU. The results also show that 32 per cent of respondents were either opposed or somewhat opposed to the idea, while 12 per cent were unsure. The results follow similar findings from a Spark Advocacy poll conducted in March, suggesting that one in four respondents thought...

When Australian Army private Robert Poate was gunned down in 2012 by a rogue Afghan soldier inside what should have been a safe patrol base, within 20 minutes Ben Roberts-Smith was on the scene with his small SAS team. Too late to save Poate and the two other Australians murdered by Hekmatullah, the war hero was sent out to hunt the Afghan down. Elevated to the top of the Joint Priorities Effects List, this terrorist could be killed whether armed or not. If the war in Afghanistan taught our soldiers anything it was that the line between friend and foe...

Steyer’s five-part plan includes passing stronger legislation to combat racial profiling, appointing a special task force to prosecute crimes at detention facilities and launching a “Know Your Rights” public awareness campaign. Additionally, he promised to “bring those detained and kidnapped by ICE back home” by creating a stronger legal defense network to help immigrants. The most attention-grabbing part of Steyer’s plan, though, is to give the attorney general power to prosecute ICE leadership. His plan cites the concept of “supervisory liability,” in which superior officers and agency leaders are held liable for actions they direct subordinates to do. The plan...

Sen. John Kennedy ripped the Democratic Party’s leadership Tuesday, claiming a "loon wing" of radical progressives has taken control with "nauseously woke" policies. The Louisiana Republican joined "The Will Cain Show" to argue that many of his Democratic colleagues are afraid to challenge party leaders on the "foolishness" of their shift to the left. "The Democratic Party is controlled by the loon wing. And that doesn't mean they're all, Democrats, a member of the loon wing, but the loon wing's in control," Kennedy said. "Their motherboard is fried." He described the far-left faction as being dominated by figures like Rep....

Will Yellowstone erupt or are we blowing things out of proportion? We may have underestimated Yellowstone’s potential to blow its stack in the future. Chinese scientists have made a disconcerting find regarding the mechanism behind the caldera’s eruption, sparking concerns that it could belch lava sooner than we’d hoped, per an explosive study in the journal Science. A study on the mechanism behind the Yellowstone supervolcano’s magma flow has sparked concerns that an eruption could be on the horizon. Contrary to prior scholarship, which suggested that the magma originates in large deep chambers, the new study suggests that it could...

US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder has said that Ireland and the US have “similar interests” that are among key issues for the relationship between the two countries. Mr. Pudzer is in Dublin to discuss priorities ahead of Ireland’s upcoming EU presidency, which is due to begin in July. “I think one of the one of the key areas would be what we call deregulation, what you guys call simplification,” he said on RTÉ’s Six One News. “I’ve had a conversation with the Irish ambassador to the EU, and I know that simplification is going to be on the...

The NYT Misrepresents the History of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict. A welter of factual errors and misleading judgments has produced a distorted description of the 1948 War. Benny Morris. 27 Feb 2024. As we saw from the savage Hamas assault on southern Israel on 7 October, the Palestinians have certainly been active protagonists in their more-than-century-long battle against Zionism and Israel. But the New York Times would have it otherwise. Indeed, the underlying narrative in their magazine piece of 6 February 2024, “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Long Shadow of 1948,” is that the Palestinians have always lacked agency and have...

US rapper Kanye West has announced the postponement of a forthcoming concert in Marseille, France, "until further notice". The announcement comes a week after this summer's Wireless Festival in London - which West had been scheduled to headline - was cancelled following the UK government's decision to block him from entering the country. French media reported that Interior Minister Laurent Nunez was looking to ban the 11 June gig. An unnamed source, said to be close to Nunez, was cited as telling the AFP news agency that the minister was "highly determined" to ban the event.

Accused SantaCon cheat Stefan Pildes actively flaunted his lavish lifestyle on Instagram — before being busted for allegedly funneling millions in charity cash from the annual Christmas-themed booze fest to bankroll his bougie vacations. The founder of the notorious seasonal bar crawl, who was arrested Wednesday on wire fraud charges, shamelessly paraded himself globetrotting with his wife and friends on trips to Nevada’s Burning Man festival, the Las Vegas Sphere and ski getaways, videos on his Instagram account show. Pildes, 50, was also seen blowing the would-be donations on a string of concerts last year, including Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem Ball”...

Last month, we received a report from a whistleblower who claimed that illegal aliens were staying in San Francisco’s homeless shelters. Following up on the tip, we visited numerous publicly funded shelters in San Francisco, and spoke to employees and residents about their policies, sometimes through a translator. We discovered not only that the shelters were housing illegal immigrants but also that they were apparently housing a population of male-to-female “transgender” illegal aliens, who had hoped to obtain “gender-affirming care.” And, to our shock, state and local governments apparently are providing it. St. Vincent De Paul’s MSC-South facility is San...

Massive Fire Breaks Out At BYD Factory In China's Shenzhen: Video Videos of the massive fire in BYD's factory in Shenzhen have been circulating on social media, showing clouds of smoke rising from the parking facility. A massive fire broke out at a multi-level parking garage within BYD's manufacturing complex in Shenzhen's Pingshan district. The fire engulfed the building, sending thick pillars of black smoke into the sky and prompting a large scale emergency response. The blaze in the "three-dimensional" parking structure located in the Ma Luan subdistrict was contained by local fire and rescue teams, with no casualties reported...

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2026 – A federal authority that allows U.S. intelligence officials to spy on the communications of foreign nationals is set to expire April 20. Lawmakers remain divided over whether, and how, to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect communications from non-U.S. persons located abroad, often with the assistance of American telecom and technology companies. Nearly a dozen House Republicans have opposed a clean extension of the law, with some calling for stricter warrant requirements before agencies can access Americans’ data. American’s emails, texts, or calls can be...