Free Republic

Over the last few weeks, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has privately made clear to other top Trump advisers that the US needs to find an off-ramp from the war with Iran — because the military options on the table to escalate the conflict could backfire and airpower alone is unlikely to achieve President Donald Trump’s stated objectives. ...Trump ultimately decided to back off after talking with Middle East allies, who told him they were afraid of Iranian retaliation, specifically retaliatory attacks on their energy infrastructure. ...A shortage of high-end American air defense systems could impact their...

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has privately said in recent weeks that the United States needs “an off-ramp” from the war with Iran, believing that the military options currently being considered could backfire and that airstrikes alone are unlikely to accomplish the administration’s goals, CNN reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. According to the report, Caine was not the only administration official who believes the US was at a crossroads in the war. He reportedly discussed the possibility of an off-ramp with other top advisers to US President Donald Trump, including Vice President JD...

The former president's son described the Stage 4 cancer as 'very painful' and 'very debilitating' during an interviewFormer President Joe Biden's prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him significant pain, his son Hunter Biden revealed during a Friday interview."The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further," Hunter Biden told the BBC in an interview which aired Friday. "It’s very painful and it’s very debilitating in many respects," he added."It’s really sad to watch," Hunter Biden said. "The only thing that I’d say about my dad, about his health right now, is...

Old-Timers’ Day in The Bronx took on an unexpected somber tone when Tommy John released a statement through the Yankees in which he said “goodbye to everyone” as he battles health issues. “I want to thank the Yankees organization [and] the Steinbrenner family for giving me this opportunity to say goodbye to everyone, along with all the friends [and] fans who followed me throughout my 26-year career.” The former Yankee — best known for being the first to undergo the elbow surgery that now bears his name — was remembered fondly by his former teammates Saturday at the Stadium. “He...

Indian Catholics remain jailed for defending parish from Hindu mob during MassA group of Catholics in India have been jailed for three months and were denied bail again this week after trying to stop Hindu activists from disrupting Holy Mass.Ten Catholics from the Bandaria parish in the Indian Diocese of Udaipur were denied bail again this week and remain incarcerated three months after being arrested and charged with wrongful restraint, illegal conversion, rioting, attempted murder, and breach of peace, after defending their Mass site from a group of Hindus who forced their way inside during Mass. Father Arvind Amliyar, the...

The Iran war has depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles, resulting in a significant erosion of firepower. A more drawn-out Iran conflict benefits Moscow and Beijing, some analysts say. President Trump’s war against Iran has depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles to troubling levels, siphoning supplies from Asia and Europe, according to senior officials. The rapidly shrinking supply of air-defense missiles and other critical weaponry in Europe and Asia not only leaves the U.S. military less equipped, but could also leave Russia and China feeling emboldened should they contemplate a potential conflict with the United States, experts said. Bombing Iran burned through thousands of...

The White House once again turned to pop culture in characterizing their immigration strategy, this time using Spider Man imagery to portray ICE agents as “friendly neighborhood” figures and on the heroic side of deportations. An Instagram post this week, features Spider-Man‘s hand spinning out a web. That leads to an image of web-covered detainees, and the message, “Criminal aliens will be caught and deported.” “Your friendly neighborhood ICE agents,” the message from the White House reads. The post comes as Sony has enjoyed runaway success with the latest in the superhero franchise, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has passed...

Marsha Peters (Ella Raines) plays an amateur sleuth trying to save the man she loves from the electric chair in Arthur Lubin’s Impact. The owner of a car mechanic shop, Marsha takes a liking to drifter Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy), offers him a job and takes him home to meet her mother. What she doesn’t know is that Walter is a “murder victim.” Days earlier, his wife Irene had plotted for her lover to beat Walter to death when stopped to repair a flat tire; the plan went awry and it’s the lover’s unrecognizable corpse that the police (and...

In a terrifying legal saga out of Volusia County, Florida, a 23-year-old woman spent 13 miserable days in jail for a fatal hit-and-run she had absolutely nothing to do with. The only crime she committed? Driving a black Dodge Durango on the interstate. On October 4, 2025, a horrific chain-reaction crash on I-4 resulted in the deaths of three people, including Flagler County Deputy Administrator Jorge Salinas, his wife, and a motorcyclist named Joaquin “Deno” Deno. The vehicle that triggered the crash and fled the scene was identified by a witness as a Dodge Durango. Instead of a comprehensive investigation,...

Non-college voters, the base of the MAGA movement, are abandoning the GOP. MAGA's net favorability is -22 pts (down 28 pts) with them. Trump's now at -19 pt net approval with them. Dems actually lead in the race for Congress with them. This is what blue waves are built on. ...

A decade ago, a computer did something that no human would have done. It was considered a breakthrough for AI. Now the world is full of them.The first glimmer of our AI future revealed itself a decade ago in the form of a single black stone. It happened during a historic match between one of the world’s best Go players and AlphaGo, a computer program developed by Google’s DeepMind lab to conquer this ancient board game. The artificial-intelligence system stunned everyone by winning their opening showdown. In their next encounter, with millions of people watching online all over the world,...

Cambridge University is England’s second-best university, but it’s now bottom of the class. As the case of Jason Arday confirms, no one does dumb like the smart people. In 2023, Cambridge made Arday a professor. He became the professorial chair of sociology and education. These fields produce politicized gibberish and call it scientific research.

By Dr. John BergsmaDoes God reveal himself in nature? Many public intellectuals are intent on denying this, even as increasing evidence pours in from disciplines like astrophysics and biochemistry that point to a creative mastermind behind the complex beauty we observe all around us. The relationship between divine self-revelation and the power of nature is a motif that runs through the readings for this weekend’s Lord’s Day. As a reminder, in this period of Ordinary Time we are doing lectio continua of Romans in the Second Reading and Matthew in the Gospel Reading. The First Readings are being chosen week...

The intelligence-sharing relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine has bounced back to previous highs, according to long-time Ukraine watchers — a welcome boost during a critical window of opportunity for the Ukrainian war effort. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the intelligence committee’s ranking member and a longtime proponent of more U.S. assistance to Ukraine, told POLITICO he sees evidence of an improved intel-sharing agreement — and believes it’s helped Kyiv gain an advantage in Moscow’s four-year-long war.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators headed for the exits in the predawn hours Saturday, ending for now a crushing standoff over President Donald Trump’s demands that they stay in session to pass a strict proof-of-citizenship voting bill before the summer recess. While they wrapped up many key priorities in the overnight votes, advancing Trump’s SAVE America Act was not among them. Instead, Republican senators who had brought the chamber to a standstill spoke to Trump late in the evening about an alternative plan: They would try again to approve elements of the voting bill as part of a broader GOP budget...

Explanation: Which of these is not a comet? You guessed it - the one on the right is a globular star cluster. The diffuse greenish coma of periodic comet 10P/Tempel 2 is at left in the frame. In fact the globular star cluster is Messier 30, also known as M30, or the 30th entry in astronomer Charles Messier's catalog of things which are not comets. The well-known 18th century astronomer kept a list of objects he observed, now his famous Messier Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters, which did not move from night to night against the background stars and...

An Iranian military spokesman said Saturday that Tehran's control over the Strait of Hormuz is "irreversible," warning that the United States must accept the new status quo or face even greater costs. "The Iranian order prevailing over the Strait of Hormuz is irreversible," Iranian army spokesman Brig. Gen. Amir Akraminia said, according to Iran's Fars news agency. "Today, the Iranian order prevails in the Strait of Hormuz, and the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran stand firm until this order is fully established," Akraminia said. He said Iran's armed forces have the will and military capabilities necessary to...

America's most powerful banker has made a huge bet on San Francisco by investing $200 million in Bay Area housing and opening a new headquarters there. JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon designated the region as a new corporate center for the bank this week, after pledging to fund hundreds of waterfront units in the city. Dimon praised the Golden City's booming economy and the stunning comeback it has made on public safety since the initiation of Mayor Daniel Lurie in January 2025. Speaking at the San Francisco Chase Center on Monday, Dimon said Lurie has been 'doing all the right...

Democratic socialist candidate Melat Kiros shocked Colorado’s Democratic establishment when she defeated 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in the state's June primary. The double-digit win exposed a growing rift over the party's values that has left some Democrats stunned and questioning the future of the party. "If you had told me this woman would have won by 13 points, I would have bet my house against that," Doug Friednash, a veteran political strategist in Colorado, told Fox News Digital. "I never would have thought we would have seen a victory of that magnitude here in Denver." Friednash has tracked Colorado's...

A book borrowed 150 years ago has finally been returned to an Australian library, with the culprit linked to the Houses of Parliament in London. Antiquities of Athens was borrowed from a local library in Kiama, a seaside town about 120km (75 miles) south of Sydney, some time in the mid-1870s. The book on classic Greek architecture was stored in a tea chest hidden behind a boarded-up fireplace for decades before it was recently discovered by a family member. Ross Simmons, 77, thinks his great-grandfather, John Simmons, might have borrowed the book to help with his career, having worked as...