Free Republic

The speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf, said Friday that Iran will close the Strait of Hormuz again amid the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports, contradicting President Trump, who said the strait was “open for business” earlier in the day. His remarks came as Trump was on stage delivering a speech in Arizona at a Turning Point USA event. “With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open,” Qalibaf wrote in a post on social platform X, adding that passage through the strait will be “conducted based on the ‘designated route’ and with Iranian authorization.”...

The decision challenges a Reconstruction-era law originally intended to prevent Americans from evading federal liquor taxes.A federal appeals court struck down a longstanding ban on home distilling, ruling that it does not effectively support tax collection and is therefore unconstitutional. While home production of beer and wine has long been legal, distilling spirits at home has been prohibited since 1868, with penalties including prison time and fines. The ruling does not immediately legalize home distilling nationwide, as state laws still apply and the federal government may appeal to the Supreme Court. A federal appeals court just handed a major win...

Investors placed a bet worth about $760 million ​on a falling oil ​price around 20 minutes before Iran's foreign minister announced ​on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was open, another sizeable wager on the world's most traded commodity ahead of major announcements in the course of the ‌Middle East ⁠war. Large, ⁠well-timed trades in recent months have drawn concern from U.S. lawmakers and legal ​experts that decisions around war and diplomacy can give some traders an edge ​in volatile and opaque derivatives markets. Between 1224 GMT and 1225 GMT investors sold a combined 7,990 lots of Brent crude futures,...

In 1992, the Jamaican duo recorded one of dancehall’s most enduring anthems with Sly & Robbie. This is the story of how it got made. Dancehall music has undergone multiple waves of popularity in the US since its birth in the late 70s; from the early 00s takeover with Sean Paul, Elephant Man, and Shaggy, to Rihanna, Drake, and Daddy Yankee putting their own spin on the genre in the 2010s. Back in the early 90s, however, roots-reggae traditionalists were still trying to wrap their head around the brash new sound. Artists like Shabba Ranks, Beenie Man, and Buju Banton...

Gerardo Aldana is a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. Our Living Lands producer Daniel Spaulding spoke to Aldana about Mayan astronomy, Mesoamerican culture, and the importance of Indigenous knowledge. “If we think of Indigenous cultures and their approaches, especially Mesoamerican cultures and their approaches to astronomy, it wasn't to transform and control nature,” Aldana said. “It was to find ways to open up dialogues with nature so that now your engagement with your environment can be a productive and a healthy one.”

President Trump sprinted ahead Friday to take a victory lap celebrating what he said was Iran’s agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. But conflicting statements from Iranian officials and Israeli pushback on the terms of the ceasefire with Lebanon are raising doubt about the president’s actual successes. “I’m concerned that, in this round, Iran came out with the upper hand,” Danny Citrinowicz, senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, posted on the social platform X. Trump began Friday morning with a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in...

I had a sudden silly idea: A "Bee" Headline: President Trump Renames Iran's Kharg Island the "President Trump International Petroleum Terminal".

New York City grocers are lobbying Council Speaker Julie Menin to oppose Mayor Mamdani’s plan to open city-run grocery stores — and are optimistic that she’ll take their side after she issued a cool response to the controversial proposal earlier this week, The Post has learned. The grocers are fast-tracking outreach to the Manhattan Dem and other Council members, who are expected to get a vote on whether to fund Mamdani’s plan that calls for $30 million for one grocery store alone, insiders said. “This is just five days old but we are doing what we can to reach [Council...

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) - Sioux City officials and family members have revealed that two-time heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman was laid to rest in a Northwest Iowa cemetery a year ago. The Texas native didn’t have ties to Iowa; instead, he fell in love with its beauty and peace when he drove through the state in 1988. Foreman never forgot Iowa following that trip, telling family members he wanted to be buried in the state. According to the family, Foreman often spoke of the area’s landscape, including the Loess Hills, and the sense of peace he felt during that visit....

Spirit Airlines has approached the Trump administration about an emergency bailout to keep the beleaguered discount carrier in business and avoid liquidation due to skyrocketing fuel prices, CBS News has learned. "Spirit is looking for a lifeline," a source familiar told CBS News. Some Spirit creditors have questioned the airline's ongoing viability and are concerned the airline will not be able to make an upcoming multimillion-dollar debt payment due to surging fuel prices, raising the possibility that the carrier could be forced into liquidation in the near future. Spirit executives and other low-cost carriers are expected to meet with Transportation...

Jill Biden bid a whopping $35,000 for a cameo in Season 2 of “Heated Rivalry,” but was outbid by some more diehard fans of the show. The former first lady tried her luck at securing a walk-on role on the HBO Max sports romance during the NYC LGBT Center’s annual Center Dinner gala Thursday night. “Dr Jill Biden was a surprise guest tonight – and just bid $35k for a walk on [sic] role in Heated Rivalry season 2!” former Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Versha Sharma tweeted after the event. However, the 74-year-old educator was ultimately outbid by $90,000. “Final winners...

Description: Prime Minister Mark Carney turned a minority government into a majority without a general election, marking a historic shift in Canadian politics. Andrew Chang breaks down the wave of MP defections, the rules behind floor-crossing and how this unusual path to power sheds light on the extent to which voters actually control election outcomes.

The Ukrainian military captured a Russian position using only ground robots and aerial drones — completely unassisted by any infantry, for the first time in the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced. No lives were lost when the robot force went into highly dangerous enemy-occupied territory and forced the soldiers there to surrender, he said in a video address to defense workers this week, without revealing additional details about the mission. “The future is already on the front line — and Ukraine is building it. These are our ground robotic systems,” Zelensky said, according to Business Insider. Over the last...

The following x.com post is written by Eric Schwalm. He commends the outstanding work of DataRepublican in exposing the Inter-Movement Impact Project's [IMIP] work steering a color revolution in America.Below, Schwalm builds on her work with his operator-level doctrinal lens drawn from 30 years of COIN and Unconventional Warfare experience (Retired Green Beret).Those wishing to read the 'receipts' he cites may prefer DataRepublican's research.Open Insurgency: A Green Beret’s Analysis of IMIPI spent 30-plus years as a Special Forces operator and intelligence professional hunting insurgent networks in Babil, Karbala, Anbar, and Diyala provinces in Iraq, in Syria, in the Horn of...

Detectives finally discovered the fate of the family who vanished in their car almost 70 years ago on their way to find Christmas decorations in Oregon. The group of five went missing in December 1958 in a case that gripped America. Two of the children were found dead months after the disappearance, but the other members had not turned up. But now, parents Kenneth and Barbara, and daughter, Barbie Martin, have been identified from human remains found in the Columbia River, officials said.

There is growing evidence that left leaning Vanity Fair is rebranding itself as a comedy magazine. Dan Adler seems to have no idea how inadvertently hilarious his interview with billionaire Stephen Cloobeck came across in "Eric Swalwell’s Beverly Hills Benefactor Wonders If He Missed 'a Big Known Secret in DC.'""A big known secret in DC" in which we are expected to believe that Swalwell's fellow Democrats, especially his biggest political benefactor, Nancy Pelosi, had absolutely no idea about the the man's depravity. In any event, Adler goes along with that pretense although it is obvious from what Cloobeck told him...

“Everything that’s wrong is staring us right in the face, and half this country simply will not join us in fighting and fixing it. It’s infuriating and depressing and maddening.” —James Woods on X.The closer this Iran war comes to a favorable resolution, the more garishly negative the puling Lefty-left gets, wishing fervently for the enemy to prevail. Why? Because the Lefty-left is also an enemy of our country. They want the operation to fail so they can reclaim power and resume wrecking and looting the USA.By the way, what exactly would a favorable outcome of this war look like?...

"Remember Lot's wife... one of the shortest verses in all the Bible. Don't look back." Billy Graham unpacks the terrifying lesson from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. When the angels led Lot's family out of the judgment, they were given one rule: don't look back. But she loved the world too much, looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt! Jesus used her as the ultimate warning for believers today. If you have been rescued by grace, stop looking longingly at your old life!

Residents of northern Israel reacted with anger and dismay on Thursday following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of an Israeli ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, while opposition lawmakers berated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for capitulating to the Americans and allowing a truce to be imposed on Israel. Moshe Davidovich, who serves as the head of the “Forum of Front-Line Communities, charged that agreements are “signed in Washington” but “paid in blood, in destroyed homes and in dismantled communities here. “A ceasefire that does not include lethal enforcement against Hezbollah for every violation and a buffer zone free of terror up...

President Donald Trump said Iran has “agreed to everything” in negotiations with the United States, including a plan to remove its enriched uranium stockpile, but left key questions unanswered about how such an operation would be carried out. In a phone interview with CBS News, Trump insisted the arrangement would not require U.S. ground troops, even as he described an American role in physically retrieving the material. “No. No troops,” Trump said. “We’ll go down and get it with them, and then we’ll take it.” Pressed on who exactly would handle the operation, the president offered only a vague answer:...