Free Republic

Iran’s decision to launch ballistic missiles at Israel after months of ceasefire was not only a military message but also an attempt to demonstrate the new balance of power in Tehran. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the driving force behind the decision was Revolutionary Guards commander Ahmad Vahidi, who has emerged in recent months as a key figure within the Iranian regime. Vahidi prevailed over more moderate voices in Tehran who opposed the strike out of concern that it could damage contacts with the United States and jeopardize the possibility of an agreement. He persuaded Iran’s...

The FBI arrested three men on Friday on charges of conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State (ISIS), according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, and Bereen Dzayee, 25, were taken into custody following a complaint filed in the District of Kansas. They were accused of 'conspiring to provide material support to terrorism' after collectively giving over $2,000 in cryptocurrency to an individual believed to be a member of ISIS. The allegations in the complaint were found to be substantiated, and the funds were proven to have...

When Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez gave a speech condemning the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro, she was accompanied by two men who can make or break the regime’s future. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino command Venezuela’s police and military, the forces that kept Maduro in power for more than a decade with deadly crackdowns on dissent. Trump said Rodríguez is the de facto leader of Venezuela. She is someone who despite her anti-U.S. rhetoric has privately assured Washington that she will do its bidding with Maduro facing prison, Trump said on Saturday. But Cabello and...

In 1955, Algeria had over 1 million Catholics and 140,000 Jews. Today, as Pope Leo visits Algeria, there are some 8,000 Catholics in Algeria and there are fewer than 200 Jews.99% of the population of what was one of the old territories of Christianity are Sunni Muslims.Was Islam so popular that all the Christians and Jews decided to convert? Not at all. They were persecuted, murdered, tortured and driven out by Islamic violence that occurred in our lifetimes.Christians and Jews had lived in Algeria since Roman times. Now they’re gone.This Christian genocide was endorsed by major world powers, aided and...

France taking a leading role in applying Ukraine War pressure on Russia with another seizure of an oil tanker. The tanker "Tagor" taken in the Atlantic Ocean last Sunday more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) off the coast of Brittany. France and other European countries have seized 'shadow fleet' merchant vessels... In what could be called 'economic warfare' French authorities fining Chinese low-cost clothing maker Shein 22 million euros (25.342 million dollars). The fine linked to difficulty for buyers to return clothing and questions over materials used by Shein to make clothing... France's national counterterrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) probing Israeli...

President Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to the national lab in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on Thursday for consultations with a team of technical experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The White House is trying to reach a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran to end the war and begin in-depth nuclear negotiations, and wants to have experts at the ready should those talks be launched. (snip)The intrigue: Axios was alerted on Thursday to the fact that Witkoff had made an unannounced trip to eastern Tennessee. Two...

It appears James Talarico's church practices what it preaches, which isn't a good thing. His woke church, which believes God is non-binary and that Jesus would have been a-okay with abortion, is spending some of its money on woke initiatives, including a trans summer camp and funding travel for out-of-state abortions. At the Texas church where the Democrat senate hopeful preaches sermons on the need for abortion in the “trans community,” church funds are sent not only to abortion giant Planned Parenthood, but also to radical organizations that pay to help facilitate out-of-state travel for women to kill their unborn...

California election results are rolling in as voters wait for outcomes in the California governor's race and several key Bay Area races. A lot is at stake, and we are breaking everything down. As I of this writing…, Steve Hilton has 28% of the vote Xavier Becerra has 25% of the vote

Politico continues its dogged faux “reporting” to create a narrative that Democrats are a lock to control the U.S. Senate in 2026. Which gives me a great opening to make one of my periodic updates on some of the crucial Senate races. The Republicans have a 53 to 47-seat majority in the Senate. There are 35 seats up for grabs in 2026. The Democrats need a net pick up of four seats to win control.The central problem for the Democrats is that only two Republican seats – Maine and North Carolina – are in competitive states. The other 20 GOP...

There are several reasons to think we won’t see a blue wave in this year’s midterm elections. A basic one is that the Democratic party simply isn’t very popular. In late May, Donald Trump’s approval ratings in the RealClear polling aggregate stood around 40 percent, which sounds bad. Yet Trump is more popular than his party – approval of the Republican brand was in the vicinity of 38 percent. And the Democrats’ ratings were even worse – standing, or one might say wilting, at about 36 percent. Those figures are not to be confused with “generic ballot” polling, which asks...

According to the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command (PLA STC), the HNLMS De Ruyter (F804) and its embarked helicopter intruded Wednesday over the airspace of the Paracel Islands, an archipelago under the control of Beijing following its violent seizure from Vietnam in the 1970s.The Dutch frigate was forced away from the Paracel Islands using “necessary measures” and was “in accordance with laws and regulations,” Senior Captain Zhai Shichen, spokesperson for the Chinese PLA STC, said in a news release.China controls the Paracel Islands via a network of 20 outposts and support forces from the mainland. Through its artificial island...

With the stakes dizzily high, President Donald J. Trump has delivered a series of bold, concrete economic actions that cut real costs for everyday families. He has paid attention to key domestic priorities. Republican leaders have generally failed to spotlight these achievements. This leaves Democrats free to dominate the conversation while public polls show persistent low approval for Trump on economic issues. Such an oversight is not minor. It borders on tragic at this pivotal juncture, when a Democratic win would likely accelerate the nation's slide from superpower status. Consider the direct relief on household essentials. Trump ended Biden-Harris-era restrictions...

Socialists from the US and Europe put on a concert in Cuba — just as the country was plunged into third blackout this month Saturday. A convoy of socialists — including streamer Hasan Piker, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, members of Code Pink and lefty Irish hip-hop group Kneecap — is in Cuba with the goal of supporting Cuba’s oppressive communist regime. But Piker and others have been dogged by criticism for staying in a 5-star hotel in Havana, and Kneecap played a concert in the capital city as the rest of the nation of 11 million people faced...

House Republicans are heading into the 2026 midterm cycle with record-breaking cash and a shrinking battlefield. Despite the polls and the narrative being pushed by the mainstream media, Republicans seem to have momentum that Democrats appear unable to match. And Democrats can’t spin this, no matter how hard they try. Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told CBS News this week that the NRCC raised $47.1 million in the first quarter of the year, the largest first-quarter haul in the committee's history. March alone brought in $28.1 million, also a record. The committee now has $78.2...

The once Golden State has a jungle primary, meaning the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party. As in the 2024 Senate race, Democrat party leaders are determined to repeat their primary strategy to set up a general election between a Democrat and a Republican. In the 2024 senatorial primary, then-Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff and Katie Porter held the one-two spot for a long time. But the last thing Democrats wanted was for Schiff and Porter to win the jungle primary and advance to the general election, where the two Democrats would spend months and dollars...

Erin Stewart suspended her campaign for governor of Connecticut Thursday after an investigative report concluded that her personal use of a city credit card as mayor of New Britain was a “repeated and deliberate circumvention of the city’s purchase order system to benefit herself, members of her family, and her political campaigns.” The “great majority” of the $207,076 in purchases charged to Stewart’s city-issued credit card over nearly a decade were unrelated to city business, and they warrant a criminal investigation by state and federal criminal authorities...

President Donald Trump granted a key approval Thursday for a major new oil pipeline from Canada into the U.S. that’s been dubbed “Keystone Light” over its similarities to a contentious project blocked by the Biden administration. The three-foot-wide (1 meter) Bridger Pipeline Expansion would carry up to 550,000 barrels (87,400 cubic meters) of oil a day from Canada through Montana and Wyoming, where it would link with another pipeline. The pipeline needs additional state and federal environmental approvals before construction, which company officials expect to start next year. Environmentalists hope to stop the project over worries that the pipeline could...

Justice Samuel Alito tore into Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s lone dissent in a high-stakes Louisiana redistricting dispute on Monday, calling her arguments "baseless and insulting" after the Supreme Court decided to fast-track implementing its recent redistricting ruling ahead of the 2026 midterms. Alito used a concurring opinion, joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, to directly rebuke Jackson, saying her "dissent in this suit levels charges that cannot go unanswered." "The dissent goes on to claim that our decision represents an unprincipled use of power," Alito wrote, adding that that was a "groundless and utterly irresponsible charge." The clash...

Two of the biggest names in the Republican Party are making stops the next few days in Iowa, a key 2026 midterm battleground state whose caucuses, for a half century, have kicked off the GOP's presidential nominating calendar. Vice President JD Vance and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas will have the midterms on their minds during their visits, which come with just over six months to go until this year's elections, when Republicans will be defending their slim Senate and razor-thin House majorities. But the moment the midterms are over, the next presidential race officially gets underway. So the trips...

Existential crises tend to arrive when the gap between how life feels and how we thought it would feel becomes too wide to ignore.For a growing number of Americans, 2026 hasn’t just been hard. It’s been disorienting. A Talker Research survey of 2,000 U.S. adults found that one in three people (32%) say they’re currently experiencing an existential crisis, with younger adults far more likely to feel that way than older generations. Nearly four in ten (37%) say their entire lives feel out of their control... A separate survey of 5,000 Americans, conducted by Talker Research for Current in December...