Free Republic

Explanation: How do clusters of galaxies form? Since our universe moves too slowly to watch, faster-moving computer simulations are created to help find out. One famous effort is TNG50 from IllustrisTNG, an upgrade of the famous Illustris Simulation. The first part of the featured video tracks cosmic gas (mostly hydrogen) as it evolves into galaxies and galaxy clusters from the early universe to today, with brighter colors marking faster moving gas. As the universe matures, gas falls into gravitational wells, galaxies forms, galaxies spin, galaxies collide and merge, all while black holes form in galaxy centers and expel surrounding gas...

Veteran investigative reporter Catherine Herridge reported during an appearance on NewsNation’s “Katie Pavlich Tonight,” that a senior member of former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s Director’s Initiatives Group, known as the DIG, described a pattern in which intelligence community officials acted on the belief that they needed to protect a globalist perspective by limiting certain information provided to policymakers, including President Donald Trump. Herridge’s comments came amid discussion of recently declassified federal documents related to intelligence assessments from 2020 concerning China’s election influence operations. Those records, which were released in connection with a primetime address by President Trump the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military has paused its airstrikes on Iran after nearly two weeks of intensifying bombing, while diplomatic efforts have pushed forward to try to avert a return to all-out war. But it remains to be seen whether the U.S. and Iran are at an inflection point in a mercurial conflict that will reach the five-month point Tuesday. President Donald Trump both has threatened more strikes and said talks are pressing on, all while brushing off concerns that rising gas prices tied to the fighting could hurt Republicans in November’s midterm elections.Adding to the uncertainty is the...

Iran summoned a Ukrainian diplomat in Tehran on Sunday to protest an attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, as the war in the Middle East threatened to overlap with the Ukraine conflict. Iran said the attack left one sailor dead and injured several others. The country’s foreign ministry complained to Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran early on Sunday and “conveyed Iran’s strong protest over the ‘hostile and criminal act.’” Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency reported. In a post on X highlighting Ukraine’s attacks on distant Russian targets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that his country’s...

A transgender woman who fled the US seeking asylum in the Netherlands now fears she could be 'hurt or killed' after the notorious refugee camp she was placed in became so dangerous that the Red Cross pulled out aid workers. Ter Apel, the Netherlands' largest refugee camp, is home to around 2,000 asylum seekers from across the globe. For years, it has sheltered people fleeing war and persecution, including Eritreans, Somalis and Syrians, who say it remains too dangerous to return home despite the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Now, a new wave has begun arriving: transgender Americans who say they...

Authorities say the 21-year-old suspect was fatally shot after allegedly charging at officers with a knife, a day after an attack left one dead and 29 injured. Berlin police shot and killed the suspect in this weekend’s deadly attack in the city’s Pride festival after he allegedly charged at officers with a knife while they tried to arrest him Sunday, authorities said.

An oil tanker blew up in the Strait of Hormuz after hitting a mine on Sunday, according to Iran’s military-linked state media, which also claimed that the Islamic Republic had intercepted at least six ships in the past 24 hours.The tanker, which was not immediately identified, allegedly strayed from Iran’s designated route in the strait before hitting a sea mine, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Tasnim news agency reported.Iran has repeatedly warned ships from using non-approved routes to sail through the Strait of Hormuz or risk coming under attack as tensions continue to flare with the US.

Sen. Lindsey Graham planned to travel to Florida in early March to persuade President Trump to join Israel in the bombing of Hezbollah in Lebanon—until a friend talked him out of it. The friend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told him on a call before the trip that bringing the U.S. into the operation, in the midst of the Iran war, was going too far, too fast, according to unreleased footage from a documentary about the South Carolina Republican lawmaker that was being filmed before he died earlier this month.“We’re concentrating right now on Iran,” Netanyahu said on the...

It sounds as if it is hot off the pages of the Babylon Bee yet, amazingly, it is a dead serious Associated Press story. The reason one might think it a Bee satire is the subject matter the AP decided to stress which you can read in the title of their Thursday story by Kristen Gelineau, "Sex work or starve: Aid workers in Nepal left jobless by USAID cuts turn to sex work to survive."The premise of the AP story is that because USAID funds were drastically cut last year, the result is that transgender people in Nepal that were...

The NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America bashed the US Constitution as “a rationalization of a pirate kingdom” at a twisted workshop last week where it brainstormed ways to abolish the foundational backbone of the country. The “How to Write a Constitution” workshop — led by a Los Angeles-born radical author who spent his early childhood in Kenya and whose middle name is Fidel — is part of nationwide leftist effort to abolish the US Senate, Supreme Court, Electoral College and presidency. “The US constitution is pushing toward a system that looks more and more authoritarian and is...

CuelleLong time Democrat strategist James Carville advised his fellow Party members to "stop fighting photo ID requirements for voting. It's a losing issue. Eighty-five percent of voters support showing a photo ID to vote. Seventy-six percent of Black voters support showing a photo ID to vote. Our Party opposing these huge majorities in favor of a photo ID makes it look like we need cheating to win elections." Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex) agreed with Carville, saying "folks are used to showing IDs to board airlines, enter government buildings, and buy alcohol, among other things. They see it as a reasonable...

German media are reporting that a suspect wanted after a vehicle was driven into a crowd gathered at a Pride event in Berlin has been shot and killed. One person has been confirmed dead in the incident and at least 29 injured.

U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, a White House official confirmed, as diplomatic efforts to end the war with Russia pick up speed. “President Zelensky is slated to meet with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity on Friday as reported by Euronews. Zelensky said this week he had spoken with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and the U.S. president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as part of efforts to revive stalled talks aimed at ending the four-year war, the report notes. U.S.-led efforts to...

Two months ago, version 3 Starship left us with more questions than answers. A booster that couldn't stick its return. A ship down an engine. And a whole community asking the same thing: is this new design actually the one? On Thursday, SpaceX flew it again. Here's what happened! Massive Reveal From SpaceX's Starship Flight 13! | 25:52 What about it!? | 657K subscribers | 57,710 views | July 26, 2026

Dear America, from an immigrant Cuban tastes freedom for the first time in his life

The disgraced Cornell University student who went viral for declining an interview with an NYC startup because he said he didn’t want to be “working for a Jew,” claims he’s returning the upstate Ivy league campus in the fall. Austin Franco, 19, the rising junior who delivered the message to VrfID’s Jewish co-founders Gabe and Aiden Einhorn via job board site Handshake in June, told conservative nonprofit Accuracy in Media that he hardly got a slap on the wrist from Cornell.

Charles 'Sam' Faddis, a retired CIA operations officer, one-time candidate for the US House of Representatives from Maryland, author and frequent contributor to Steve Bannon's Warroom, passed away on July 25, 2026 due to complications from COVID-related interstitial lung disease.

26 July 2026 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time St Joachim And Anne Church, Elizabeth PaReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: A(II).First reading1 Kings 3:5,7-12Solomon chooses the gift of wisdomThe Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, ‘Ask what you would like me to give you.’ Solomon replied, ‘O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in succession to David my father. But I am a very young man, unskilled in leadership. Your servant finds himself in the midst of this people of yours that you have chosen, a people so many its number cannot be...

Suspect Abdul Ballout has alleged ties to Germany's Islamist scene, officials sayA suspect with alleged ties to Germany's "Islamist scene" is on the run after allegedly plowing a van into a crowd near Berlin's Pride festival and attacking others with a machete in what officials believe was an Islamic terror attack that left one person dead and at least 29 others injured.German authorities on Sunday launched an intensive manhunt for Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots whom officials say may be armed and dangerous."Everything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack," German Interior...

The Defense Department has selected the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Virginia Tech to host a revamped fellowship program for senior military officers — the first universities approved after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth severed partnerships with top universities. The two universities will participate in the new Senior Service College Fellowship, a 10-month professional military education program that will serve as an alternative to traditional war colleges. Additional university partners will be announced at a later date, according to the department. “We are deeply honored to participate in the Senior Service College Fellowship program. The program fits well...