Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned Wednesday that Iran is “frighteningly close” to developing weapons-grade enriched uranium.Speaking to lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Wright stressed that Iran’s enriched uranium, which President Trump is deadset on confiscating, puts the regime just weeks away from the threshold needed to get a nuke.“They are a small number of weeks away to enrich that to weapons-grade uranium. There’s still a weaponization process that happens after that, but they’re quite close,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Taylor Swift has earned recognition alongside hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny on The New York Times' newly published list of the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters. The unranked compilation, released Monday, represents the culmination of ballots submitted by hundreds of music industry experts before being refined by the newspaper's editorial team. The selection process aimed to identify artists whose compositions have shaped the American musical landscape over the past five decades. The comprehensive roster includes an impressive cross-section of American musical talent spanning multiple generations and genres. Dolly Parton, Mariah Carey, Carole King, and Stevie Wonder represent...

Gunshots have been heard in the Philippine Senate building, Senate authorities said on Wednesday, where a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court has been holed up to resist arrest. [SNIP] Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos insisted the incident was not carried out by government personnel, but rather an apparent shootout between an unidentified armed group and Senate security personnel. Marcos said no government forces attempted to enter the Senate to arrest Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, a longtime ally of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who evaded arrest by local investigative unit officers earlier this week. Senator Dela Rosa was filmed...

CAMARILLO, Calif., May 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Salem Media, Inc. (OTCQX: SALM) today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by The Christian Community Foundation, Inc., d/b/a WaterStone in a transaction that will take the company private and strengthen Salem’s long-term mission across radio, digital media, streaming, podcasting, television, and publishing. Edward Atsinger III, Salem co-founder and board member, said finding the right long-term steward for the company was a priority. “For the last ten years the Atsinger and Epperson families have been looking for a successor that would continue to carry the torch of...

Earlier this spring, a mysterious explosion blew up a car carrying an alleged cartel operative in broad daylight on one of Mexico’s busiest highways just outside of its capital city. Francisco Beltran was killed instantly along with his driver, their bodies found slumped over in their seats after the concentrated blast. Video and pictures of the attack on March 28 show a quick burst of flames with the car continuing to roll forward, drifting off the highway. Known as “El Payin,” Beltran was accused of being a mid-level member of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most notorious drug trafficking...

[snip] Cynthia West, a former congressional aide now running for school board in Florida, has alleged that Massie secured her a job in Congress, in the office of Republican Representative Victoria Spartz of Indiana, after the pair struck up a romantic relationship. However, West said Massie soon began engaging in behavior she "wasn't comfortable" with, after which she ended the relationship. West said Massie offered her $5,000 after she said she would file a wrongful termination complaint against Spartz, who she said had fostered a toxic work environment. West said she declined this as well as a $60,000 settlement payment...

A New Hampshire woman says Planet Fitness canceled her membership after she complained about seeing a man in the women’s locker room last month. Judy Walcott, a longtime member of a Planet Fitness location in Concord, New Hampshire, told Fox News Digital she felt unsafe after encountering someone she believed was male in the women’s locker room near the shower area on April 11. “I was shaking. Like I was actually trembling because it freaked me out that bad,” she told Fox News Digital. Walcott said she reported the incident to a young employee at the front desk, who told...

Gavin Newsom has sought to transform California’s massive prison system into a Nordic-style rehabilitation program. Newsom has placed a moratorium on all executions, transferred condemned prisoners to facilities across the state, and dismantled San Quentin State Prison’s death row. As part of this transformation, the Newsom administration approved a $189 million contract to provide new digital tablets — generic, flat-screen devices in a plastic shell — to every inmate in the state prison system, at “no cost” to offenders. The administration heralded the effort to replace inmates’ old tablets — which were piloted in 2018 and given to nearly all...

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals this week temporarily blocked an $83 million dollar payment that President Donald Trump owed to E. Jean Carroll in her defamation case while the Supreme Court mulls intervening. The court order granted Trump's request for a stay, provided he increase his bond by nearly $7.5 million. Carroll, in 2019, accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman's dressing room some time in the 1990s. She brought separate legal claims for defamation over his denials while in office and after leaving.

If you live in Louisiana, don't forget to VOTE on Saturday! Oust Senator Cassidy! If he comes in third, he's gone!

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the murder conviction of Alex Murdaugh, who was convicted in March 2023 of double homicide of his wife and son. The court ordered a new trial, saying that Mary Rebecca "Becky" Hill, who served as the court clerk in Colleton County, exercised "improper external influences" during Murdaugh's first trial. Murdaugh's attorney Dick Harpootlian said in a statement that Murdaugh will remain in custody. The state supreme court voted unanimously on the decision. "Although we are aware of the time, money, and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but...

Asked by the far-left Drop Site News if Iran reached out to the US since the beginning of the operation to attempt to reach a deal, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Esmail Baghaei answered with a strong no. "Do you think any Iranian with common sense would be in a position to reach out to the United States under these circumstances? We were negotiating with the US. In just less than one year, we were betrayed," he insisted. Iran Army Spokesperson: “Our people’s and armed forces’ resilience stopped the enemy from achieving any goals. Controlling the Strait of Hormuz will bring...

🚨 JUST NOW: CIA whistleblower confirms under oath that Dr. Anthony Fauci "INJECTED" himself into the intelligence community when they were about to confirm that COVID came from the Wuhan Lab Then it "changed." Imagine that. "He injected himself into the IC." "As of August [2021] the CIA was considering calling this a lab leak." "That changed [days later]." "We have no idea why that changed." Fauci interfered! It's clear as day.

BREAKING UPDATE: Desiree Segari, the Florida woman who called for Trump supporters to be SHOT, has been sentenced to 13 months in prison.

Democratic lawyer Marc Elias appears to believe that Democrats do not need to stop at simply sacking and packing the Virginia Supreme Court in response to the adverse ruling on the radical gerrymandering plan. Elias reminded Democrats that they could eliminate the entire Virginia government under the state constitution. The demand for radical action was prompted by the Virginia justices, including one appointed by then-Democratic governor Mark Warner, who found the Democratic effort unconstitutional. It does not matter that leading Democrats, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger, also believed that the Democrats could be found in violation of the state constitution in...

Iran has rebuilt most of its missile infrastructure along the Strait of Hormuz, according to US intelligence assessments.The regime has reportedly restored operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along and around the narrow maritime chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.According to people with knowledge of the assessments, Tehran has also retained roughly 70 per cent of its pre-war missile stockpile and mobile launchers.About 90 per cent of its underground missile storage and launch facilities are now considered “partially or fully operational”, The New York Times reported.

Israel is betting nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars that it can talk its way out of a reputation crisis. Lawmakers in Jerusalem approved a 2026 national budget at the end of March that includes roughly $730 million for public diplomacy — the broad category known in Hebrew as hasbara — more than four times the $150 million they allocated the year before… Most striking for a country long accustomed to bipartisan American support: 57% of Republicans under 50 hold negative views of Israel. Support has cratered among the religiously unaffiliated, Black Protestants and Catholics. Among American Jews, support has...

DoxyPEP is becoming less effective against gonorrhea as antibiotic resistance rises, even as protection against chlamydia and syphilis remains durable, according to study results published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. “We report a rapid loss of effectiveness of doxycycline PEP for prevention of gonorrhea in male individuals living with HIV or receiving HIV PrEP or PEP in Southern California,” the authors wrote, noting that their findings might merit revision of guidelines recommending doxyPEP for gonorrhea prevention. DoxyPEP refers to taking a single dose of doxycycline—an antibiotic related to tetracycline—as post-exposure prophylaxis within 72 hours after sex to prevent sexually transmitted...

Democratic lawyer Marc Elias appears to believe that Democrats do not need to stop at simply sacking and packing the Virginia Supreme Court in response to the adverse ruling on the radical gerrymandering plan. Elias reminded Democrats that they could eliminate the entire Virginia government under the state constitution.The demand for radical action was prompted by the Virginia justices, including one appointed by then-Democratic governor Mark Warner, who found the Democratic effort unconstitutional. It does not matter that leading Democrats, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger, also believed that the Democrats could be found in violation of the state constitution in pushing...

The South Carolina Supreme Court ordered a new trial in the killings of Murdaugh’s wife and son. The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh’s double murder convictions and life sentence, ordering a new trial in the killings of his wife and son. In the latest twist in a winding legal saga, the state’s top court ruled that Murdaugh was denied his right to a fair trial because of Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca “Becky” Hill’s “improper external influences on the jury.” “Hill placed her fingers on the scales of justice,” the court wrote in...