Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran’s strikes on more than two dozen U.S. bases in the Middle East focused on early-warning systems before hitting aircraft and buildings, causing billions of dollars in equipment damage, according to an Associated Press analysis. The AP independently verified damage to American targets using satellite imagery from multiple providers and spoke to four regional officials who were briefed or have firsthand knowledge of what was hit. The AP found that, through August, more than 115 drone or missile strikes claimed by Iran or Iranian-backed militias damaged or destroyed structures on 26 military bases and other sites with...

Imagine visiting a democratic country where young people dressed in military clothes, carrying machine guns, and eager to defend their country are ubiquitous. There are also children everywhere, as it is the country with the highest birth rate in the developed world. The cities are vibrant, and everyone you meet tells you what a wonderful place it is to live. Former Australian deputy prime minister John Anderson shared these impressions on his recent trip to Israel. He explained that his reason for the visit was that he despises racism, especially the oldest and most pernicious hatred, antisemitism. He also said...

MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal judge on Friday demanded that the government immediately suspend three pro-Trump video advertisements that may have violated laws against taxpayer-funded propaganda. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon, ruling from the bench after an emergency hearing, said the contested online ads were “purely partisan” pieces designed to attack Democrats and promote Republicans ahead of the midterm elections, likely violating the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act. One of the videos, titled “$5,000 to Americans,” features President Donald Trump speaking directly to viewers from the Oval Office. “If the Democrats win, you will have an economic depression,”...

The “Squad” won’t just be a fringe faction in the new House. The far-left group that began with the 2018 election of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is set to be a substantial block whose members are itching to leverage their newfound power to try to turn their sprawling agenda — abolishing ICE, Medicare for All, expanding gender-affirming care, and government-run supermarkets — into action. The radical clique is set to double from the current core of seven to as many as 16 after a series of primary wins, election experts say – a number that swells to two dozen when counting...

Saving democracy apparently requires a collection department. Before Americans finish casting their ballots, one proposal for the next Democratic majority already identifies a promising destination for political combat: Stephen Miller’s bank account. An October 28 National News Brief opinion column argues that Democrats should create a civil cause of action that lets people harmed by executive branch abuses sue federal officials for damages. Trump has no use for pretense, and he’s not interested in playing along. He thinks he is a law unto himself; that he holds sovereign authority over the entire country; that he can rule by decree and...

The traditional “family photo” to open the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting has been abruptly cancelled in the US after a host of nations – including Australia and the UK – refused to appear beside the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, pulled the plug after several European officials, the UK and Australia made it known they would boycott or walk out of the snapshot that often kicks off such international gatherings. Rubio still opened the talks in Atlanta with an appeal for unity on the issues that threaten international security and trade. “We are...

UNDERCOVER: ELISSA SLOTKIN LAYS OUT DEMOCRATS' LAWFARE PLAN IF THEY WIN THE MAJORITY! "We have a list of, like, the 'signature cases.' So the things where it's, like, so egregious, such a violation of law, such a corruption case... in every committee, there will be the 'signature cases' where we hold people accountable." "I just went to Hungary. I went over to Budapest because they just got rid of their authoritarian leader after 16 years. And I'm like, how did you handle 16 years of corruption? We don't have that much, but we have so much." She named the targets:...

you can: 🇧🇷 Steal elections 🇷🇴 Annul elections retroactively 🇬🇧 Cancel local elections 🇺🇸 Raid the home of the former President and opposition leader 🇷🇴 Ban election winners from running again 🇭🇺 Ban political opponents from running again 🇩🇪 Threaten to ban the most popular party 🇫🇷 Threaten to ban the leading presidential candidate 🇧🇷 Jail your opponent 🇵🇱 Storm the Constitutional Court And you still talk about doing all this in the name of “democracy” and the “rule of law.” Notice something? #polandcoup https://x.com/balazscseko/status/2116291760531857690?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2116291760531857690%7Ctwgr%5E41659675535d7ad681b76b1908aa56a776650c9c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforum.fifthquarter.net%2Fthreads%2Fthe-pit-of-misery-politics-and-religion.2602%2Fpage-834

Brazil called in Argentina's highest diplomat in Brasilia to explain the Argentine government's role in the departure of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro to the ​US after losing the presidential election, two sources in the Brazilian ‌government said on Friday, as Argentina denied the summoning. Brazil's foreign ministry summoned the charge d'affaires at Argentina's embassy, Maria Emilia Cortes, on Thursday, the sources said. Cortes was received by the ​ministry's South America Department director, Joao Marcelo de Queiroz, one of ​the sources added. It marks the latest diplomatic tension between the neighboring countries after ⁠Brazil downgraded ties with Argentina in August following insults...

After Election Day, all eyes in the political world could turn to Alaska. Alaska has already been at the center of a roiling political controversy this week over how the second Dan Sullivan ended up on the state’s Senate ballot, which has sparked lawsuits, criminal investigations and threats to block certification of the election if incumbent GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan is defeated by Democrat Mary Peltola. But the uproar about the Alaska Senate race could ratchet up to 11 if control of the Senate comes down to who wins in the state, one that election officials and experts say is...

The Brave New World where the police are the useless. Shopkeepers in Paris are stocking up on iron bars, batons, tear gas canisters, pepper spray, and baseball bats, all in anticipation of more mob violence and looting. After the events of the past week, they no longer trust that the police will adequately protect them, and are determined to defend themselves. Firearms are illegal, but that has not prevented some people from taking a risk and stocking up on guns. More on this, the first battle of what some French commentators have called a “civil war,” can be found here:...

Language is always in flux, with different phrases and slang coming and going. Similar to inside jokes and cultural references, what was commonly said in one generation sounds bizarre to another. The idioms and sayings of our grandparents' generation don't make much sense to us, so we choose to use language that we can relate to. In this process, then, the older phrases begin to disappear.If you've ever rolled your eyes at one of the seemingly silly things your grandparent said, then you are in good company. Some of us might say the phrases of our grandparents' era, but they've...

Three months after a Denver District Court judge ordered Secretary of State Jena Griswold's Office to ask a consulting agency if it has a missing $25,000 report, the consultant has released a set of demands. Susan Heinzeroth with SageRiver Consulting wants, among other things, protection from "disparagement." Former employees of Griswold told CBS Colorado that the report is highly critical of Griswold, and it appears Heinzeroth is worried about retaliation. "I think they don't want to produce it. Nobody wants to produce it. It's just become this shell game of where is this report," says Suzanne Taheri. ... Eight months...

A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked an order requiring the Trump administration to reopen the Diversity Visa lottery, allowing the government to keep the program paused while it pursues an appeal. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday granted the government's emergency request to stay a preliminary injunction. This would have required the State Department to open registration for the fiscal year 2027 Diversity Visa Program by Sunday, November 1. Red Eagle Law is a California-based immigration law firm that represents Diversity Visa selectees. It sued to open registration for the Diversity Visa...

China's secretive space plane is making a series of passes over the United States in the coming days and you could spot it with your own eyes! The mysterious spacecraft, Shenlong, is currently orbiting Earth on its fourth mission. Although we don't know what it's up to, China's space agency has said it is testing technologies that "will pave the way for more convenient and affordable round-trip methods for the peaceful use of space in the future." Under favorable conditions, Shenlong is bright enough to spot with the naked eye, according to Spaceweather.com. But you'll need to set your alarm...

Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Saturday accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk of staging a forced takeover of the country's top court after the head of the court, an ally of ​the previous far right government, was suspended. Late on Friday, the Constitutional Tribunal said its ‌longest-serving judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski, the tribunal's president and an appointee of Tusk's hard-right predecessor, and was now in charge of the court. The move escalated a battle between Nawrocki, an ally of the previous nationalist ​government, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-European government over control of the judiciary. "Tonight, there was...

Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets and his delegation safely reached Russian-occupied Oleshky in Kherson Oblast on 30 October, with the local truce at 80 hours and holding. He said he was talking with residents to learn what help they need most. Russia has kept Oleshky, on the left bank of the Dnipro River, cut off for months, leaving residents starving. Now the test is where the buses take people. The White House promised residents who wish to leave transport to their “preferred destination.” Lubinets said on 27 October that everyone who wants to go to Ukraine will be able...

Leftist mainstream media outlets piled on this week to express outrage at my observation, during a speech in Grand Rapids for Mike Rogers, about the troubling dearth of scientific output from the world’s 22 Arab nations over the past five decades.These reporters — @fatimathefatima @AP, @Kanishka183 @Reuters, @rachel_roubein @washingtonpost, @baylisswagner @nytimes, @stevebenen @MSNOWNews — omitted critical context, presumably to bestow plausibility on their accusations that my statements were racist and Islamophobic.However, my speech was not a critique of Arabs or Islam, but of Islamism (also known as “Islamofascism” or “Political Islam”), a toxic ideology conceived and promoted by the terrorist...

Islamism is a violent corruption of mainstream Islam that summons adherents back to the seventh-century ideal of bloody jihad, the homicidal and suicidal religious zealotry that propelled a motley cadre of desert nomads to conquer half the world. Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, the Muslim equivalent of the Vatican has rejected Islamism as “false Islam” and a “perversion of the Islamic religion” and accused it of “barbaric crimes.”

🎃 SpaceX ramps up preparations for Starship Flight 15 with roaring Raptor 3 engines and loads of other Starship tests. In fact, SpaceX Has Never Moved This Fast With Starship. Meanwhile NASA's Artemis III mission takes shape as SLS stacking progresses, Orion prepares for docking demonstrations, and Blue Origin advances New Glenn and Blue Moon development. We unpack the surprising four-launch lunar lander plan for them, and the challenges of returning astronauts to the Moon with Artemis IV. Falcon 9 launches more Starlink satellites from Vandenberg, the International Space Station faces a permanent change over its Zvezda air leak, and...