Free Republic

Iran used the satellite to monitor major U.S. military sites. Satellite imagery was taken in March prior to drone and missile strikes on the sites. Iran secretly purchased a spy satellite from China in 2024, which it then used to target U.S. bases. According to the Financial Times, Earth Eye Co, a Chinese company, built and launched a TEE-01B satellite in 2024. After it was launched into space from China, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Corp purchased the satellite, leaked Iranian military documents show. Iran used the satellite to monitor major U.S. military sites. Satellite imagery was taken in...

A Chinese satellite breakup has created a new debris field in a rare orbit where fragments may remain for centuries. A Chinese reconnaissance satellite has broken apart in a rare high-altitude orbit, creating dozens of tracked debris fragments that may remain around Earth for centuries, according to reports from Gizmodo and orbital tracking experts. The failure of Yaogan-50 (02) has added a new debris field to one of the more difficult regions of space to manage. The fragments are now traveling in a highly retrograde orbit, a path that moves against the direction of Earth’s rotation and creates challenging conditions...

In a shocking case out of Colorado, a crime lab analyst has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars for tampering with DNA evidence. Imagine your loved one’s rapist or murderer being acquitted because the forensic analyst on the case decided to destroy the DNA proof linking them to the crime. That’s exactly what 66-year-old Yvonne “Missy” Woods did. Over her decades-long career at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, this deranged woman altered DNA data in over one-thousand cases, allowing countless criminals to walk free. For some bizarre reason, this woman threw out DNA from rape kits and even homicide...

Venezuela's new petroleum minister sees her South American home not as a dilapidated former oil giant, but as an emerging energy economy ripe for U.S. and foreign investments in new oil and gas exploration, both onshore and offshore. Paula Henao, who took over as the hydrocarbons minister in March after the forced U.S. removal of former leader Nicolás Maduro, told an overflowing Houston energy audience on Wednesday that Venezuela is much more than just its famed heavy-grade crude oil. There are more than 916 exploration opportunities awaiting foreign investment, she said, including natural gas and other untapped oil basins. She...

Iran claims that three of its pilots who disappeared after their aircraft were shot down during the war nearly six months ago are alive and being held by Qatar, prompting Tehran to call for international intervention and their immediate release. According to reports published Saturday, a senior Iranian armed forces official said the three pilots were captured by Qatari forces after the Su-24 aircraft they were flying were shot down during fighting in March. The claim represents a dramatic change in Iran’s account of the pilots’ fate. For months, Tehran said it did not know what had happened to the...

Japan for the first time has deployed ground troops to the Balikatan exercise, a series of multidomain drills staged across the Philippine archipelago. Participation by about 1,000 Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) Soldiers augments the annual training that began decades ago as a Philippines-United States exercise and now involves about 20 nations. Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) personnel previously attended Balikatan as observers and in noncombat roles focused on humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR). They participated in a maritime drill in 2025. A reciprocal access agreement between Manila and Tokyo, which took effect in September 2025, allows JSDF and Armed...

The confrontation, over a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, challenged a fragile cease-fire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had killed several Hezbollah members overnight on a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, challenging a fragile cease-fire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.The encounter happened in the area of the Ali al-Taher ridge, a hilltop about six miles from the Israeli border where violence has flared in recent days. The Israeli military said it had “struck” Hezbollah fighters in an Israeli-occupied area where its soldiers were operating, and that an Israeli soldier...

Under Governor Abigail Spanberger, Virginia has become a hotbed of illegal alien crimeWASHINGTON – The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the following statement after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested an illegal alien who has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual battery in the death of a 2-year-old girl in Virginia.According to local reporting, the child’s mother took her to the Goochland County Sheriff’s Office on July 4. Deputies began life-saving measures to save the child, who was then taken to a local hospital, where she later died.The Louisa County Sheriff’s Department arrested Raul Genesis...

Several prominent Democrats were caught on camera participating in a progressive political video call which began with one speaker comparing America to a Nazi regime ruled by "dead-eye psychopaths" and "bloodthirsty imperialists." Participants on the call, which was hosted by Progressive Victory in March, included Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., whose name has been floated as a possible presidential contender, and several Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed candidates, including Abdul El-Sayed, Cori Bush and Darializa Avila Chevalier. A spokesperson for Khanna has since disavowed the speaker's comments and said Khanna was not on the call at the time the remarks were made....

Cuba’s communist dictatorship may be living on borrowed time as the island’s power grid crumbles — but the Democratic Socialists of America is making “solidarity” with the regime its issue of the moment. On Friday, the DSA sent 20 of its members there as part of the lefty “Nuestra América Convoy,” aiming to “show the world that Cuba is under siege, but they are not alone.” They relaxed in luxury Havana hotels and rode in air-conditioned buses to meetings with Communist Party officials. A wrecked economy and a grim 67-year history of repression that’s made more than a million Cubans...

BREAKING: Immunity for two key figures in the Iranian leadership: Iran regime's FM and Parliament Speaker get temporary immunity from the US and Israel, Channel 14's @bardugojacob reports. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf received temporary immunity from Israel and the United States, valid at least for the entire five days of negotiations underway with Tehran.

As new law looms, allies defend Gov. DeSantis’ CAIR ban before appeals court. The case could test how far states can go in labeling and defunding groups they deem security risks. A conservative legal coalition is urging an appeals court to let Gov. Ron DeSantis bar the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) from receiving Florida contracts, funding and benefits. Their argument: Florida has the power to refuse public support for organizations it says have ties to terrorism. In an amicus brief, Holtzman Vogel lawyers Mark Pinkert and Jason Torchinsky advised the court to rule in favor of DeSantis’ appeal of...

The Justice Department on Wednesday indicted eight young anti-Israel activists, most of whom studied or worked at the University of Michigan, for orchestrating a criminal plot "to terrorize government officials, businesses, and the Jewish Federation" of Detroit. The defendants, many of them known campus agitators, targeted the homes of university officials and intended to use "poison, bombs, and psychological torture" on their targets. "In the dead of night, masked and hooded defendants allegedly threw noxious chemicals through the windows of families' homes and taped demand letters to their front doors," said Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the...

A Toronto police officer has been shot to death during a raid tied to a March shooting outside the US consulate. The officer was shot during a gunfire exchange at a high-rise building in the early hours of Thursday, the Toronto Police Service said. He was later pronounced dead in hospital. Police had been investigating suspects who allegedly fired shots at the US consulate building in Toronto earlier this year, in what US and Canadian authorities described at the time as a "national security incident". (excerpt) US officials have linked the March shooting to a dual Iranian-Iraqi national accused of...

ALBAWABA- Unconfirmed reports circulating on social media and in several regional media outlets claim that Ahmad Vahidi, commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in recent Israeli airstrikes targeting sites in or around Tehran. On Sunday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an airstrike allegedly on a Hezbollah command centre in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut, following earlier rocket fire launched into northern Israel by Hezbollah. In response, Iran declared that Israel had “crossed all red lines” in Lebanon and launched multiple waves of ballistic missile strikes targeting Israeli territory late on Sunday, June 7...

BREAKING: It was just revealed that the Chinese suspects who tried detonating an IED at a US Air Force Base were BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENS of ILLEGAL ALIENS Omg. This is EXACTLY what Justice Sam Alito tried telling everyone at the Supreme Court! STRIKE DOWN BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP for illegals. Per Daily Wire: The two's parents were arrested on March 18 for illegal entry, they tried getting asylum in 1993, but ultimately got a deportation order in 1998. It was the CHILDREN of Qiu Qin Zou and Jia Zhang Zheng who tried bombing MacDill Air Force Base Visitor’s Center in Tampa FL. Justice...

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...

Federal officials have served subpoenas to Marxist political influencer Hasan Piker and CodePink cofounder Susan Medea Benjamin as part of a wider investigation into whether U.S. organizations and leaders violated U.S. laws and sanctions in supporting Cuba’s communist regime, Fox News Digital has learned. Piker and Benjamin are among those caught in a federal inquiry into whether activists who traveled to Cuba in March violated U.S. sanctions laws through the financing, coordination or delivery of goods to Cuba, including potential contacts with Cuban government personnel or entities on the island. The administrative subpoenas were sent to the pair by the...

A millionaire anti-war activist who organized the high-profile “humanitarian aid” convoy to Cuba in March has ties to Hamas and the Iranian regime. The aid flotilla to Cuba attracted much attention as it included Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi and leftist streamer Hasan Piker — who both sung the praises of the ailing Communist ‘paradise’ after their trip. It was organized by Medea Benjamin, president of the Arc of Justice Foundation, a charity with $51 million at its disposal. Benjamin, 73, made at least seven trips to Gaza between 2009 and 2012 where she met with Hamas officials, including the...

INTRODUCTION On April 29, 2026, Sen. Bernie Sanders convened a 75-minute panel in the US Capitol on “the existential threat of AI.” Two of the four panelists were Chinese government affiliates: Zeng Yi, Dean of the Beijing Institute of AI Safety and Governance, and Xue Lan, a Tsinghua University professor who chairs China’s national AI governance expert committee and serves as a Counsellor of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. From a US Senate platform, Xue called the US-China AI race “an inaccurate narrative” and argued for “safe zones” of cooperation on AI safety. The event was...