Free Republic

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has voted repeatedly for resolutions to withdraw U.S. troops from the military conflict with Iran, told reporters Wednesday that the United States is “worse off” than it was before President Trump launched the war in late February. “I think the Iran war has not been a success. I’ve been opposed to the Iran war from the beginning. I think by any objective measure we’re worse off than we were before the war,” Paul said on Capitol Hill. “If you look at the militarization of the Strait of Hormuz, that’s never happened before,” he said. “There’s...

THOMASVILLE, Ga. — As Earl Williams drove through a historic Black neighborhood, Dewey City, in his hometown, he hardly recognized what he saw. Homes that once belonged to friends, family, and neighbors had siding covered in mold. Some were boarded up. Others had holes in their roofs. Black churches once used Oquina Creek, which runs along the neighborhood’s border, to baptize congregants. Today, fecal bacteria and other contaminants have made the water unsafe due to an aging wastewater system. “Sometimes you get the feeling like you’re in a Third World country,” Williams said. After three decades in Washington, D.C., he...

"According to His great mercy" (1 Pet. 1:3). Every dimension of life, whether physical or spiritual, is a testimony to God’s mercy. When God saved you and granted you an eternal inheritance, it wasn't because you were special or more deserving of His love and grace than others. It was because He sovereignly chose to love you and extend His great mercy to you. That's why Paul said, "God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Iran on Wednesday of flying members of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps into Yemen, saying Tehran’s actions helped ignite a renewed confrontation between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. "They decided to send direct flights from Tehran into Yemen, carrying IRGC elements and others into the country," Rubio told reporters. "And the Saudis responded to it." Rubio did not identify the flights, specify how many IRGC personnel were allegedly transported or provide evidence supporting the allegation. He made the remarks while attending an annual gathering of Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers...

Iranian drone attacks on CIA facilities in the Gulf have prompted U.S. intelligence analysts to investigate whether Russia assisted by providing targeting information or ​advanced drone technology, said four people familiar with U.S. intelligence. These people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters, said U.S. intelligence officials have ‌not yet reached firm conclusions about the possible Russian involvement in the attacks on CIA facilities. But they cited the strikes' effectiveness and apparent precision, as well as Russia's broader technical support for Iran, as possible evidence. Reuters and other media have reported — and U.S. officials have...

President Donald Trump has placed a new condition on a nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia a day after formally approving it, saying the country now must join the Abraham Accords. Trump wrote in a post on social media Thursday that the deal, which has already been signed, “will be approved,” but added, that it “is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords.” The president also emphasized in the post that there would be “no enrichment” even though the agreement could lead to the country enriching its own fuel for civilian reactors. The deal has...

Lizzo is officially an icon on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. Gracing the July 2026 digital cover.

A Baptist pastor in Virginia has allegedly confessed to sending more than a dozen sexual images to a teenage boy, according to court documents. Kenny Baldwin, 46, has been the lead pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church since 2011. Earlier this week, he was charged with 13 counts related to sending naked pictures of himself to a teenage boy. The two met while Baldwin came to the young man’s church to give a sermon and the two exchanged phone numbers afterwards. ABC27 reports: “According to court documents, Baldwin had confessed to two different people, who then reported the confession to Troopers....

The trial of Minnesota mom Shiloh Hendrix, 37, began in Rochester this week with father Shire Jimale of a young boy accused of stealing from Hendrix's bag, who she then called the n-word in return, took the stand. Hendrix is charged with two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct stemming from the April 2025 incident at the Roy Sutherland Playground at Soldiers Field Park. The Jimale's testimony, through a Somali translator, against Hendrix reportedly contradicted what he had told investigators during his first interview in 2025. He had not gone to police about the incident until after the video went viral...

U.S. oil just topped $90 a barrel and Brent crude is passed $100 a barrel. A number of new factors could mean this crude comeback has legs. For example, what happens if all Iranian oil suddenly went offline? It’s an outlier thought. Maybe it’s crazy. While we can’t all agree on much, can we at least agree that maybe now is the exact right time for crazy, outlier thoughts? Before I get to that, here’s a quick synopsis of where we stand right now with the nearly hour-by-hour headlines around Hormuz and energy. Angry militants in Iran continue to risk...

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows has a previously unknown Global Device ID (GDID), a permanent, unique digital identifier assigned to Windows devices that can tie a user's actions to their device. This came to light when an alleged member of a notorious hacking group was caught at an airport after Microsoft handed over his GDID to the authorities. Microsoft describes the GDID in a published complaint (via Windows Latest) as "a persistent, device-level identifier designed to uniquely identify an installation of a Windows operating system on a device, either a physical device (e.g., a mobile phone or laptop) or virtual...

The top US and Russian diplomats met in a new push to find an end to Moscow's more-than-four-year-old war on Ukraine, but both sides signaled no new breakthroughs or cause for optimism. The July 23 meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov came with US-efforts to broker a peace deal frozen as the Trump administration shifts focus to the Iran war, and the Kremlin shows no sign of softening its maximalist war demands. Following their meeting, which lasted just 35 minutes, Rubio described the talks as "good" and "frank" but said fresh proposals...

An 88-year-old widow living in a trailer in rural Michigan has been listed as funneling over $150,000 to Democrat causes through ActBlue. Nearly 15,000 separate donations averaging eight per day, every single day, for five years, Michigan Enjoyer first reported. The latest allegations come as ActBlue continues to face intense scrutiny from congressional investigators and federal authorities over its donor verification practices and allegations of potentially fraudulent contributions.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan issued a criminal referral against former Special Counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday for allegedly making "willfully and intentionally false statements" when testifying before Congress last December. "The Committee on the Judiciary writes to refer strong evidence that appears to show Jack Smith, former Special Counsel, knowingly made false statements during his December 17, 2025 deposition," Jordan wrote in a letter sent to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Atlantic magazine's Jonathan Chait recently experienced a brief flirtation with political sanity when he expressed panic over the possibility of communists (who now call themselves socialists) taking over his beloved Democrat Party.However, alas, poor Chait relapsed and embraced one of the most fervent Mad Hatter delusions of the extreme left, as you can see in the very title of his Wednesday descent down the Socialist (Communist) rabbit hole: "Abolishing the Senate Might Be the DSA’s Best Idea."The subtitle assures no return trip for Chait, who just flushed away the concept of American federalism: "A teardown of the upper chamber would...

Silicon Valley titans have been working hard and spending big to defeat California’s proposed wealth tax, but they need to broaden the fight. According to estimates calculated from public filings, tech godfathers such as Sequoia’s Michael Moritz and Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr have spent more than $120 million on efforts to stop the tax, a bill for which recently cleared the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee and now heads toward the deep-blue Assembly and Senate. Per some recent reports, it has a 70% chance of passing. --SNIP-- Taxes are downstream of politics and politics is downstream of culture. The wealth...

In Kentucky, August 3 is a critical deadline regarding U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell's seat. Due to a 2024 state law, if a Senate vacancy happens after August 3—which is 56 days prior to the November general election—a special election cannot take place, meaning the seat could potentially remain vacant until a new senator is elected.

The Commission refused to register the Save Europe Act, ruling that its call to halt non-Western immigration breached EU anti-discrimination rules. Migrants in Tenerife - Miguel RIOPA / AFPIn a not so surprising move, the European Commission has formally refused to register the anti-immigration ‘Save Europe Act’ as a European Citizens’ Initiative, meaning its organisers cannot begin collecting the one million validated signatures required to put the proposal formally before Brussels. The Commission argues that the proposal is incompatible with the European Union’s “fundamental values” and anti-discrimination rules. Dutch right-wing activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek, one of the campaign organisers, called the...

Weeks after the Obama Presidential Center’s star-studded opening in Chicago, a subcontractor who previously claimed his company was stiffed for nearly $4 million has shut down operations and laid off 25 union workers. Mike Owen, the owner of Chicago-based Adamson Plumbing Contractors, told Fox News Digital that the financial fallout forced the company to abandon about half a dozen other construction jobs and left it on the verge of collapse. Owen described the shutdown as a painful decision he believed was necessary to save the company from bankruptcy. "Laying off close to 30 people is something that no owner in...

I had to sign up for a google account to view a document by a former employer(edu) well over a decade ago. I have received notifications over the years that my account is going to be canceled because of lack of use. I just got another termination notice for the 5th or 6th time. LOL