Free Republic

With American warships tightening a naval blockade off Iran and global attention fixed on the Persian Gulf, the Pentagon this week quietly executed a significant move in the Indo-Pacific, announcing a Major Defense Cooperation Partnership with Indonesia that underscores its and the Trump administration's focus on counterbalancing future Chinese aggression. The partnership will elevate bilateral military ties between the two countries in the Strait of Malacca as American forces enforce a naval blockade in the Persian Gulf. When asked about the deal’s impact on the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, a Department of War official told RedState the agreement...

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a measure prohibiting public schools from using taxpayer-funded resources to support teachers’ unions, a move supporters say restores government neutrality while critics argue it limits educators’ ability to organize. The legislation, House Bill 516, bars school districts from facilitating payroll deductions for union dues and restricts the use of public resources to assist union activities. The law is set to take effect July 1. Supporters of the measure, including the Freedom Foundation, which prompted the report, argue that allowing payroll deductions amounts to indirect taxpayer support because public employees and systems are...

Four Democrat-led states that rejected President Donald Trump's policy of no taxes on tips and overtime pay are getting called out by Republicans for going against efforts to increase affordability.

Gallup finds U.S. women’s religiosity falling sharply, with older and middle‑aged women showing the steepest declines in importance and attendance. New Gallup polling shows a sudden rise in religiosity among young men, who are now far more likely than young women to say religion is an important part of their lives. Data released Tuesday, compiled in 2024 and 2025, found that 42% of men ages 18 to 29 say religion is a very important part of their lives — up from 28% in the previous poll and the highest level since 2000‑01. By comparison, 29% of women ages 18 to...

DIGNIDAD Act introduced for the third time in six years by Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.). Excellent written summary - plus - a 39 minute podcast. Key Points - Scope of Amnesty - Enforcement and Legal Concerns - Economic and Labor Market Impact

According to a Greek Reporter article, archaeologists led by Panayiota Galiatsatou of Greece's Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities have investigated a submerged harbor complex off the eastern coast of the Peloponnese. The platform had been built in shallow water in order to take advantage of the natural harbor and nearby defensive hill. Pottery recovered from within the platform suggests that it dates to the Roman period. This year, the research team examined structures that had been built on top of the platform. These features have roughly square shapes and are made of stones. The team members now think that the stones...

Lebanon this week remembered the outbreak of its civil war 51 years ago. If anything, April 13, 2026, ironically looked no different to the days of civil tension in the prelude to the breakdown of law and order among the Lebanese in 1975, between those who wanted to peel Lebanon away from regional discord and foreign agendas and those who wanted to see the country and its people used as cannon fodder. Half a century has passed but the similarities are striking. Lebanon is again facing its demons and the curse of division, as the majority of its people want...

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem delivered a defiant speech on Monday evening, making it clear that the terrorist organization has no intention of retreating from its positions despite heavy military and political pressure. Qassem directly attacked Lebanon’s top leadership, including President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, claiming that US support for the Lebanese army is intended to drag the country into a civil war in order to destroy Hezbollah. Ahead of a new round of ambassador-level talks scheduled to begin on Tuesday in the United States, Qassem stated unequivocally that Hezbollah opposes any negotiations with Israel. “We have decided...

Carnival Cruise Line must pay $300,000 to a former passenger after a federal jury in South Florida found that the company was negligent in serving the woman more than a dozen shots of tequila before she fell down some stairs and suffered a possible traumatic brain injury. The Miami federal jury decided last Friday in favor of Diana Sanders, a 45-year-old nurse from Vacaville, California. ... According to the lawsuit, Sanders was a passenger aboard the Carnival Radiance on Jan. 5, 2024, when was served at least 14 shots between approximately 2:58 p.m. and 11:37 p.m. She experienced a fall...

The Barbegal Roman Mill was a flour mill complex powered by 16 waterwheels, fed by two aqueducts bring water to Arles. The mill was located on a hillside near the village of Fontvieille, and was considered "the greatest known concentration of mechanical power in the ancient world"...operated for a couple of hundred years, from the end of the 1st century until the end of the second century. The mills had a capacity to produce 4.5 tons of flour a day, enough to provide bread for all 12,500 inhabitants of Arles (Arelate) at the time...The Barbegal mill complex was built in...

Consider a thought experiment. Imagine the US Congress paid a freshman representative his full salary, gave him immunity from criminal prosecution, and then quietly arranged for him to skip 98% of all floor votes so that no voter could ever discover what he actually believed. Now imagine that same representative ran for governor on the promise that he was “just like the incumbent, minus the corruption,” while powerful institutions spent billions creating the conditions for his victory. You would call that election interference. When the European Union did precisely this in Hungary, the Western press called it democracy. On...

Banks in the U.S. may not like the idea of being forced to collect citizenship data on customers, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says they better be prepared for the task. “If Treasury and the banking regulators say it’s their job, it’s their job,” Bessent told CNBC’s Sara Eisen at the Invest in America Forum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. An executive order that has been discussed for months took a step closer to reality earlier this week when Bessent said in an interview with Semafor that the EO is “in process.” The planned EO is one more plank in...

Caitlyn Jenner says he now regrets accepting Glamour Magazine’s “Woman of the Year Award.” He still, however, wants biological men to have access to women’s bathrooms. “Here I am fighting the battle to keep biological men out of women’s sports because it’s not right… And I want to protect women,” Jenner admitted to Tomi Lahren on Tuesday. “I started thinking what a hypocrite I am, trying to keep biological men out of women’s sports, but I’m a biological man, and they gave me Glamour’s Woman of the Year Award.” Jenner added he doesn’t regret transitioning to a woman but that...

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife Dr. Cerina Fairfax before he killed himself inside their Northern Virginia home, police confirmed Thursday morning. Police said the couple was going through a divorce. Shortly after midnight on April 16, Fairfax County police officers responded to the 8100 block of Guinevere Drive, where they discovered the bodies of an adult male and an adult female inside the home, Captain Chris Cosgriff said. Investigators believe Justin Fairfax man shot Cerina Fairfax before turning the gun on himself in what police described as a domestic incident....

It’s the feel-good story of the week, if you don’t mind taking joy from others’ misfortunes. When it comes to the wind and solar energy grifters, I don’t mind a bit taking joy from their misfortunes. The last few days bring the news that apparently the majority of the remaining wind and solar electricity projects still in development in New York State are under imminent threat of cancelation. At this point the details are sketchy, and nobody is attributing the news to any named source as far as I can find. Nevertheless, the story is sufficiently widely-reported from normally reliable...

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth read a fake Bible quote from Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 movie Pulp Fiction during a prayer service at the Pentagon on Wednesday. Discussing the Sandy 1 rescue mission of a downed pilot in Iran this month, Hegseth (as first flagged by A Public Witness, a religion-themed Substack) urged his audience to join him in a prayer, which he claims was delivered at the beginning of the mission. “This prayer was recited by Sandy 1, which is one of the Sandies, to all Sandies, all those A-10 crews, prior to all CSAR missions, but especially this CSAR...

Rachel Wu was looking around a dining hall at the Johns Hopkins University when she noticed the shift: There are a lot more Asian students at the elite Baltimore university these days. “It’s starting to feel like all the freshmen are Asian,” said Wu, an Asian American junior. Last fall, 45% of Hopkins’ first-year students were Asian, the university reported in December, up from about 26% just two years ago. The massive shift came after the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that forbade colleges from considering race in admissions, but other selective colleges did not see such a dramatic swing....

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and her top aides and family members routinely sent personal messages and requests to young staff members that are now under review by the department’s inspector general. Ms. Chavez-DeRemer and her former deputy chief of staff sent texts asking employees to bring wine to them during trips for the department. Sometimes the requests came in the middle of the workday. Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s husband exchanged text messages with young female staff members, as did her father. Some of the young women were instructed by Ms. Chavez-DeRemer and the former deputy chief of staff to “pay attention” to...

During operational activity in the area of Bint Jbeil, IDF soldiers located more than 130 weapons inside a school. Among the weapons located were Kalashnikov rifles, pistols, and additional weapons. Alongside the weapons, the troops also found Hezbollah flags and other terrorist organization insignia. The forces confiscated the weapons and continued operations to search the area and clear it of terrorists. The Hezbollah terrorist organization systematically exploits the civilian population in Lebanon...

A man killed a woman and then himself in a murder-suicide at the $1 million Virginia home of top former Democrat lawmaker Justin Fairfax. Officers were called to a home on Guinevere Drive in Annandale early Thursday morning, Fairfax County Police said. Property records reviewed by the Daily Mail confirmed the residence is owned by the former Virginia lieutenant governor, 47, and his wife Cerina, 49. Authorities have not disclosed the identities of the deceased, with a press conference expected to take place imminently. Police descended on the residence just after midnight after a 911 caller told dispatchers that he...