Free Republic

Lithuania announced on Thursday that it has withdrawn from an international convention banning the use of cluster bombs. The formerly Soviet-ruled Baltic state of 2.8 million people has also signalled its intention to leave another international treaty prohibiting the use of anti-personnel land mines, News.Az reports, citing AFP. NATO member Lithuania has said it wants to strengthen its defences following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, fearing it could be next if Moscow succeeds. The Lithuanian parliament voted to leave the cluster munitions convention last July, but the cvountry had to wait six months after submitting exit documents to the UN for...

Russia has sent a stark warning to Israel over its war in Gaza as Moscow's Foreign Minister says the IDF cannot destroy Hamas. Sergei Lavrov said it is "unrealistic" to believe that Israel can dismantle the Palestinian group because of its "support in the Muslim world." -snip- The Kremlin has hosted Hamas in Moscow twice since the war broke out after the brutal October 7 attack.

The Secret Service is providing Kimberly Cheatle, its former director who resigned last month, a security detail in an unprecedented effort to protect a former agency chief amid lingering national anger about the myriad security lapses under her watch that led to the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump and the killing of firefighter Corey Comperatore, according to three sources in the Secret Service community. Cheatle has faced an ongoing firestorm of fury from Americans citizens, and even rank-and-file Secret Service special agents and officers, over the agency’s failures that created an opening for shooter Thomas Crooks to open...

A far-left organization in New York City that has been at the forefront of anti-Israel protests has vowed to “shut down DC” when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to speak before Congress. Netanyahu will be speaking before a joint meeting of Congress on July 24. The People’s Forum wrote in a post on X on Wednesday that the group would be shutting down Washington, DC, when Netanyahu arrives and would “issue a notice of a citizen’s arrest.” “The people charge Benjamin Netanyahu with genocide,” the group wrote. “When the car criminal comes to Washington DC on July 24, we...

A federal whistleblower has come forward with allegations that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was involved in the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The whistleblower, identified as Hadassah Feinberg, a former Pennsylvania State Police employee, filed a criminal complaint on February 7, 2025, detailing claims that Shapiro conspired with other officials to orchestrate the attack as part of a political scheme. ... According to the complaint, President Joe Biden made frequent visits to Shapiro in the weeks leading up to the Trump rally to discuss what was described as an “obstacle” faced by...

An LGBTQ group in Ecuador tapped into a $25,000 grant from the Biden State Department to produce a two-day drag workshop intended to promote diversity and inclusion abroad. Footage obtained by The Post showed drag queens donning makeup, strutting around topless wearing nothing but pasties and crowing about how the displays could be used as a “political tool.” Fundacion Dialogo Diverso, a nongovernmental organization that aims to promote democracy and the “LGBTIQ+ population” of the South American country, organized the drag show and published footage of it last July. The State Department footed some of the bill for the show...

EXCLUSIVE — One day before anti-Israel protesters caused mayhem in Washington, D.C., burning an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he spoke to Congress, scrawling graffiti across federal property, and burning American flags, the National Park Service granted the organizing group a public gathering permit.... The NPS said in the permit documents that ANSWER “refused to provide specific locations for onsite contacts.” ANSWER is a project of a charity in San Francisco called Progress Unity Fund, according to tax records.... The NPS is already facing scrutiny for its handling of the Wednesday protest. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) sent...

A ransomware attack against blood-donation nonprofit OneBlood, which services more than 250 American hospitals, has "significantly reduced" the org's ability to take, test, and distribute blood. In a notice today, OneBlood revealed the intrusion disrupted a "software system," and had forced the organization to use manual processes and procedures to remain operational. The outfit provides blood for healthcare facilities across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. "Manual processes take significantly longer to perform and impact inventory availability," OneBlood spokesperson Susan Forbes explained in a statement. "In an effort to further manage the blood supply we have asked the more...

It's being called the largest ever breach of protected patient health information by a government-regulated medical company in America's history. Change Healthcare, owned by UnitedHealth Group, fell victim to a cyberattack eight months ago, but revealed on Thursday that 100 million people had been impacted. That surpassed the previous recordholder for worst breach of US patient data: a 2015 episode at Anthem Inc. that compromised 78.8 million individuals. The first official report by Change Healthcare, which manages revenue and payments for medical providers, estimated in July that only 500 people had been compromised. Now, the scope of the February 21...

After President-elect Donald Trump won a second term, multiple defendants charged for their roles in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, asked to delay their cases because they anticipate pardons from Trump.Many were denied, but each nonetheless raised questions about how Trump will handle the cases.According to data collected by NPR, more than 1,500 people have been charged in relation to Jan. 6, with nearly 1,000 pleading guilty.At least a dozen cases have been dismissed, while plenty remain with changes following Trump’s election. At the beginning of November, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia announced multiple sentences and...

The Biden-Harris administration brought massive numbers of Afghans to America. The result has been terror attacks, sexual assaults, and criminal acts. And now a major terrorist plot. According to the Department of Justice, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, an Afghan citizen awaiting parole who came here on a Special Immigrant Visa, plotted to kill Americans on Election Day. And he didn’t do it alone. The media loves to talk about ‘lone wolves’. This was an entire family of ‘lone wolves’. Or Islamists. “Tawhedi was also seen in a video recorded on July 20 reading to two children text that describes the...

A military judge ruled Wednesday that plea deals sparing accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other terrorists the death penalty must remain in effect. The stunning move comes three months after Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revoked the shocking plea deals handed out to Mohammed and two alleged accomplices by the Office of Military Commissions in July. ... The order, issued by Air Force Col. and Judge Matthew McCall in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba ... Family members of the victims of the heinous terror attack, which killed nearly 3,000, were outraged by the judge’s ruling.

ASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization and was plotting an Election Day attack targeting large crowds in the U.S., the Justice Department said Tuesday. Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City told investigators after his arrest Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month and that he and a co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents.

The Islamic Republic of Iran hacked former President Donald Trump’s campaign and turned over the stolen materials to the Biden-Harris campaign, federal officials said in a statement. Federal officials from ODNI, FBI, and CISA said in a joint statement that Iranian hackers sent the stolen materials to then-Biden-Harris campaign officials in June and July. Information that the hackers sent to the then-Biden-Harris campaign “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails.” “This is further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden...

Donald Trump says a federal case needs to be brought against Kamala Harris after it was revealed Iran sent sensitive materials to her campaign about her rival... ...on Wednesday, the FBI claimed the cyber-terrorists sent unsolicited emails containing stolen information from the Trump campaign to people connected to the Democratic president in an effort to interfere. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, is now questioning why the Biden or Harris campaign did not turn over this information or report it to authorities... There's no evidence that any of the recipients of the hacked information responded, officials said, and...

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., made the startling claim Thursday that there are at least five known assassination teams in the U.S. conspiring to assassinate Donald Trump.Gaetz told Just the News and Breitbart that a senior Homeland Security official told him about the five assassination conspiracies before Sunday’s latest attempt on Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course.“Three of them that we know are foreign in nature. Two of them we know are domestic in nature, and that calls for a force protection that we do not have around the former president right now,” Gaetz said said, adding that DHS...

The man who fired shots at former President Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania had encrypted accounts in multiple countries, according to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives task force investigating the attempted assassination.“We haven’t learned much about those overseas accounts,” Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) told a press conference in Chicago on Aug. 21. “We do know they were in ... Belgium, New Zealand, and Germany.”Waltz is on the “Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump.”FBI officials previously disclosed that Crooks used encrypted messaging applications.“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care...

Representative Clay Higgins is a member of the congressional investigative task force looking into the assassination attempt by Thomas Matthew Crooks against President Trump. Rep Higgins was also doing independent research prior to his appointment to the congressional committee, and he released his preliminary report findings today [SEE HERE pdf]. There are some remarkable revelations in the 6-page pdf. One detail outlines how it was a Butler County SWAT officer who fired the initial shot that stopped Matthew Crooks after 8 shots fired. The Feds did not initially stop the assassin, the locals did. Another detail highlights how the Butler...

Inflation rose again in July 2024 for the 42nd consecutive month since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office in January 2021. Yet, corporate media demand that Americans celebrate the 2.9 percent price hike plaguing their pocketbooks as an “inflation milestone.” According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index for last month, Americans paid 2.2 percent more for food, 4.9 percent more for electricity, 5.1 percent more for shelter, 8.8 percent more for transportation, and 3.3 percent more for medical care than they did in July 2023. Even compared to May 2024, July’s inflation...

… “ This is a precautionary notice to all customers to boil water that may be ingested due to water of unknown quality. Customer should not drink the water without boiling it first. This advisory will remain in place until follow-up testing confirms the water is safe to drink.” … “ We have no information that the water was contaminated by this incident, but we issue this advisory as a precaution while we test the water. We will update you when the water supply has returned to normal production and meets water quality standards. Please share this information with all...