Free Republic

US forces leave country where 4,500 of them died in worst US war of 21st century BAGHDAD, Sept 29 (Reuters) - US forces are set to pull out from their last bases in Iraq by Wednesday, a departure celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies ​who now have deep influence in the country where 4,500 Americans died during more than two decades of war. Iraqi security experts say the withdrawal — agreed in 2024 under President Joe Biden and carried ‌out by Donald Trump's administration even as it wages war against Iran — could give Tehran and its...

An Iraqi demand that tens of thousands of militants turn in their weapons falls short in a conflict fed by America’s war with Iran BAGHDAD—After spending more than 23 years and $1.7 trillion, America is winding down what critics have called its forever war in Iraq, closing the last major U.S. military base on Wednesday.“We don’t think we need the military there anymore,” President Trump said during a White House visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in July. “We have a fantastic champion, a new champion,” the president said. “He’s young, and he’s handsome.”Zaidi, a 41-year-old businessman, sat beside...

These days one reads fewer stories proclaiming the turning of the tide in the Russia-Ukraine war. There are also fewer tweets from Donald Trump threatening Iran with imminent destruction. Now that the noise has receded, it is a good time to listen. I am not hearing of a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive. What I am hearing instead is the thud of Russian jackboots marching deeper into the parts of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine that Vladimir Putin does not yet control. Meanwhile, in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula, the Houthis have taken control of the strategic port city of...

Buying a house, raising a family, spending Saturdays at kids’ sporting events – every aspect of normal life is touched by private equity.Your local doughnut shop got taken over by private equity and, like everything else private equity touches, things got worse. Gone is the experience of watching the conveyor belt fry doughnuts in front of you. No more biting into a freshly made pastry that melts in your mouth. Bad for you? Sure. Delicious? Yes.Now, it is just bad for you. Private equity stepped in and doughnuts are now shipped to nearly every location from a corporate shop. Krispy...

Elon Musk took the spotlight at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday. Well, not in person! But he and his influence took center stage as filmmaker Alex Gibney discussed his new doc, simply called Musk, during a press conference around lunchtime.The film about the owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, world-premiering in the Italian fest's Venice Open -- Out of Competition program, comes from producers Jigsaw Productions (Gibney, Jessie Deeter, Erin Edeiken), Closer Media (Zhang Xin), Anonymous Content (Nick Shumaker, Jessica Grimshaw) and Double Agent (Dana O'Keefe)...A couple of questions focused on the tech mogul's support for...

NEW: The Maria Bartiromo backstory, per multiple sources familiar.... Maria Bartiromo wanted to pursue a story related to China and 2020 election voting conspiracies... a major sensitivity for the network given its Dominion and Smartmatic lawsuits. A Fox Business executive sent a text to Fox Business producers informing them that that story could not go to air. Bartiromo took a screen shot of the guidance and sent it to senior White House officials. Fox News leadership learned about that after receiving a call from the White House, which they viewed as a fireable offense. Fox pulled Bartiromo from air after...

Ukraine on Sunday launched one of its largest aerial attacks on Russia since the start of the war, firing hundreds of drones and killing at least six people. A separate attack sparked a fire at a warehouse owned by the Russian online retail giant Wildberries in the town of Podolsk.

The ruling does change the fundamental nature of what the books were intended for: they were intended to be read by human beings, not used as training for machines to replace human thought and ingenuity. ============================================================== AI companies are buying old books, scanning them, then destroying them. Anthropic has been buying the books to feed the machine with human knowledge and ideas written down before the AI era, so only books with publication dates before 2022 will do. Once they have the books, they rip off the spines, feed them through a scanner, and then on into the gaping maw...

The Burmese people continue to suffer as the brutal civil war in Myanmar heads toward its sixth year. The conflict was recently brought home to America with China’s arrest of Min Zin, an American citizen who heads the Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP)–Myanmar, located in Thailand. Beijing accused him of spying. China has increasingly close relations with the government in Naypyidaw, highlighted by the June visit to Beijing of Min Aung Hlaing, the commanding general who recently anointed himself Myanmar’s president. China helps Hlaing’s regime survive despite widespread popular opposition. For decades the borderlands of Myanmar have been aflame,...

hat is an “illiberal democracy”? Ever since Viktor Orbán coined the term, it has sparked endless debate. In reality, though, the answer is simple: It is the opposite of a liberal autocracy. And what is a liberal autocracy? Even simpler: It is what his successor, Péter Magyar, has been putting in place since taking power on May 13, 2026, under the complicit silence of Brussels and other European capitals that, until recently, were crying “totalitarian wolf” every other day. Sorry to disappoint you, but Hungary’s autocratic drift is happening now, not before. In the span of two highly productive weeks,...

Over the summer months, 5 million people will visit London, with its free museums and galleries, massive events featuring the biggest names in music and sport, and everything Britain’s capital city has to offer. And, as new figures released today show, they’ll be able to do so knowing London is one of the safest cities of its size in the world. On social media, a dark blizzard of disinformation – much of it coordinated and amplified by extreme groups and hostile foreign actors – has seen bots and trolls depict London as a “lawless” city where crime goes unpunished and...

With the pointless war of choice in Iran going poorly, the Trump administration has declared a virtual war on the international criminal court (ICC). Secretary of state, Marco Rubio, vowed on Monday to “dismantle” the court as a supposed threat to US sovereignty. His rationale is laced with sophistry. The administration’s real goal is to secure impunity for war crimes, even those committed on the territory of ICC member states. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed and a video posted on X, Rubio conjures up a dystopia in which local American officials such as police officers or border patrol agents...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it has attacked Amazon’s data infrastructure in Bahrain, according to a statement reported by Fars, an IRGC-linked state media outlet. Fars News Agency said on Tuesday the IRGC had “attacked the central data infrastructure of the American company Amazon in Bahrain with several cruise missiles and destroyed it,” according to a translated Telegram post. CNBC was unable to independently verify the information. CNBC has reached out to the National Communication Center of Bahrain and Amazon for comment. Hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have ratcheted up over the past 10 days as President Donald...

In every war, there comes a point where the battlefield expands beyond missiles, fighter jets and tanks. It becomes psychological. The objective is no longer simply to destroy your opponent's military capability, but to break their political will.That is why recent comments from members of Iran's parliament deserve far more attention than they have received.According to reports circulating from Iran, some lawmakers have openly discussed the possibility of invading neighboring Kuwait, seizing American military personnel stationed there, transporting them back to Iran and using them as human shields against future U.S. attacks.Could they actually accomplish something like that?Probably not.The United...

Tesla cars are constantly capturing video data from all their cars that is sent back to their servers. No doubt, this data could be used to track criminals or anyone else by a query to the database. I have not seen this discussed anywhere, but seems like LE or those with ill intent could see this as a treasure. I saw this post: This little blue dot on your phone is a revolutionary invention https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4386790/posts and it made me remember this question. Tesla uses the data to improve their self driving algorithms so billions of videos are uploaded from cars...

On paper, the US constitution is a thing of beauty. But the would-be emperor in Washington has revealed its great weaknessAmerica’s big birthday has come at a bad time. On Saturday it will be a divided nation that marks 250 years since 13 North American colonies declared their independence from the Great Britain of George III. Many will be anxious that the republic they established that day is fragile – not least because of the would-be emperor in the White House.Some will console themselves that hope and angst have always been intertwined in the American story. From the very start,...

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) is considering moving its military bases’ operational systems in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia to Israel in order to increase their distance from further Iranian missile and drone attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported last Thursday. The US Navy may revamp its base in Bahrain, which has suffered severe damage since late February up until the recent US-Iran ceasefire. Bahrain has been home to the US Navy’s central forces in the Middle East for over 50 years. One option is to establish a new base in the Negev big enough to hold the American...

US-Saudi relations have significantly deteriorated in recent months amid anger in Riyadh over Washington’s decision to launch a war against Iran that has caused massive blowback for the rest of the region, a Middle Eastern intelligence official tells The Times of Israel, confirming a Wall Street Journal report. Saudi Arabia refused to allow the US to use its bases in order to conduct Project Freedom, which was aimed at breaking Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz by escorting stuck ships out of the channel. Saudi bases and airspace were critical to the operation and Riyadh’s refusal to cooperate forced...

When American and Israeli warplanes struck Iran on Feb. 28, Israeli officials let themselves believe the alliance was entering a golden age. Four months later, they are bracing for a future where Israel stands more alone than ever. The vice president of the United States set the stage last week, telling Israel it has almost no friends left in the world, and that it should think hard before turning on the one it has. But the problem for Israel is much bigger than JD Vance, according to seven people, including U.S. and Israeli officials and others familiar with the relationship....

Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister 'all the Jews are sick of you' during a shouting match regarding peace in the Middle East, according to a new book about the President's second term. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's 'Regime Change' details Trump's attempt to broker a Gaza peace deal between Israel and Hamas in September of 2025. The President was on the call with Netanyahu, son in law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff when they became frustrated with the prime minister following an Israeli strike on Qatar. That's when Trump unleashed, the book claims. 'Everybody's sick of you, Bibi....