Free Republic

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is moving “quickly” on President Trump’s directive to restart nuclear weapons testing to ensure the U.S. has the “most capable” nuclear arsenal in the world. Hegseth said Friday, during his meeting with Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn, that the Department of Defense (DOD) will work with the Department of Energy (DOE) on nuclear testing and added that Trump has been “clear” the U.S. needs to have a “credible nuclear deterrent.” “That is the baseline of our deterrence, and so having understanding and resuming testing is a pretty responsible, very...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. military carried out three strikes Monday in the waters of the Eastern Pacific against boats suspected of carrying drugs, killing 14 and leaving one survivor. The announcement made on social media Tuesday, marks a continued escalation in the pace of the strikes, which began in early September spaced weeks apart. This was the first time multiple strikes were announced in a single day

The U.S. Marine Corps is set to celebrate its 250th anniversary at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California, led by Vice President JD Vance. Vance is set to lead the festivities as the first former Marine to hold his office on Saturday. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan and Marine Corps Commandant General Eric M. Smith will be joining the vice president for the event. More than 15,000 attendees are expected, including Marines, Navy sailors, veterans and families are expected at the Red Beach demonstration. The show will integrate Navy and Marine Corps operations across...

United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said “firepower” is coming to Ukraine through European nations’ purchases of US weapons, but whether that includes American-made Tomahawk missiles is still not clear. “Firepower, that’s what is coming,” said Hegseth, backing up comments from NATO chief Mark Rutte as the security alliance’s defense ministers gathered in Brussels. He added that “commitments” made by European nations would soon turn into “capabilities” for Ukraine.The weapons purchases are being made under the new Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative, which has already seen $2 billion pledged for military equipment for Ukraine, with more expected to...

Media across the ideological spectrum said they will not sign the Defense Department’s restrictive new press policy by Tuesday’s afternoon deadline. The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Associated Press and CNN said they wouldn’t sign, as did Newsmax and the Washington Times. Matt Murray, The Post’s executive editor, said the policy runs counter to the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of the press. “The proposed restrictions undercut First Amendment protections by placing unnecessary constraints on gathering and publishing information,” he said in a statement Monday. “We will continue to vigorously and fairly report on the policies and positions of...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s assertion Tuesday that newly proposed military fitness standards may exclude women from certain combat roles has reignited fears about his approach to women in the armed forces. In a highly unusual address to hundreds of the military’s top leaders in Quantico, Va., Hegseth declared new directives to ensure every combat position “returns to the highest male standard” of their service’s physical fitness test. “If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it,” he said, though he stressed that the military will continue to welcome women into its ranks. “I don’t want my...

On Tuesday evening, the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV spoke out against anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bellicose rhetoric. At an unusual gathering of military leaders earlier that day, Hegseth had told the top brass to be “prepared for war, not for defense,” while espousing the use of “overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy” and promising to “untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country.” Speaking to reporters in Italian, Leo called Hegseth’s rhetoric “worrying,” per the Catholic News Agency, “because it shows...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said that Medals of Honor for soldiers who took part in an 1890 massacre of Native Americans would not be revoked. More than 300 Lakota Sioux men, women and children were killed by U.S. Army soldiers on Dec. 29, 1890, in one of the deadliest attacks on Native Americans by the United States military. The Lakota people had gathered to resist government control in an area of South Dakota that is now part of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation..... In 2019, Democratic lawmakers, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, introduced legislation to revoke...

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered a meeting with top military leaders from around the world to gather on short notice. The meeting is slated to take place at Quantico in Virginia next Tuesday, per the Washington Post. A meeting of the officials was confirmed by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who said Hegseth "will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week," but did not address additional details, the outlet reported. Military members from around the world have been ordered to attend the meeting, the outlet reported. The order also comes as Hegseth has been looking to overhaul...

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Judge Jeanine Pirro said on Fox News Thursday that federal authorities seized one of the largest drug precursor shipments ever headed for the Sinaloa Cartel. The Trump administration ramped up its cartel crackdown after President Donald Trump authorized military strikes Tuesday, with the latest operation off Venezuela’s coast killing 11 alleged Tren de Aragua members. In an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Pirro said her office — working with Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, and the DEA — intercepted 1,300 barrels of methamphetamine precursors shipped from Shanghai and bound for...

Another day, another leak. CNN and The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that sources say the Pentagon Inspector General has ‘evidence’ that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Signal chat included classified information from Central Command. The Pentagon Inspector General expanded his investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the double-encrypted app Signal in May. Steven Stebbins took over as Acting Inspector General after President Trump fired the previous IG and 17 other inspectors general. Stebbins was first appointed to his position in 2015. Pete Hegseth has been under heavy attack since before his confirmation hearing and the leaks keep coming....

I was conversing with some ex-Adventist the other day when I came across a claim that Seventh-day Adventist pioneer and prophetess Ellen White was an alcoholic. It seemed farfetched to me. However, after doing my own research, I was able to find Mrs. White’s own words on the subject, as recorded in Counsels on Diet and Foods (p.54):“I have just read your letter. You seem to have an earnest desire to work out your salvation with fear and trembling…. There was a time when I was in a situation similar in some respects to yours. I had indulged the desire...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is under attack once again. Anonymous sources told The Wall Street Journal that Pete Hegseth brought his wife, Jennifer Hegseth, to two meetings with foreign military officials, during which they discussed sensitive information. According to The Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Hegseth, a private citizen, was present at a meeting at the Pentagon when Pete Hegseth met with U.K. Secretary of Defense John Healey in early March. Hegseth’s wife was also present at a meeting last month at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Spouses of high-ranking presidential administration officials usually have a low-level security clearance, at minimum. The...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum yesterday directing the realignment of the Defense Department's civilian workforce... "The net effect will be a reduction in the number of civilian full-time equivalent positions and increased resources in the areas where we need them most," the memo reads. It then lists two courses of action to implement Hegseth's intent... Hegseth calls on the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness to immediately implement DOD's Deferred Resignation Program and to also offer voluntary early retirement for all eligible DOD civilian employees...

James Rogers, 66, allegedly killed Mark Iacono, 65, with his bare hands Thursday evening following a Bay Shore Alcoholic Anonymous meeting, Newsday reported. ... Long Island investigators said the two men started arguing over money in the parking lot of the United Methodist Church just before 9 p.m., soon after the meeting ended. Iacono landed face down, and Rogers allegedly grabbed his head and smashed his face into the ground multiple times, News12 Long Island reported. After a witness pulled Rogers off Iacono, he continued to kick him. Rogers allegedly grabbed Iacono and flung him to the ground.

United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a warning to Americans on Friday about the link between alcohol and cancer. Murthy’s advisory outlines the direct link between the beverage and increased cancer risk, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The news release continued: The Surgeon General’s Advisory includes a series of recommendations to increase awareness to help minimize alcohol-related cancer cases and deaths, including updating the existing Surgeon General’s health warning label on alcohol-containing beverages. “Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and...

Everyone can see it.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump do not drink. In a country where more than two-thirds of adults consume alcohol, that’s a surprising fact — not that there’s anything wrong with abstaining (and both Trump and Biden have their reasons). However, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris not only counts herself in the majority of Americans who drink, but she apparently has good taste in wine. According to a Washingtonian article published after Harris snagged the vice presidential nomination in 2020, the current VP enjoyed spending time at Cork Wine Bar in Washington, D.C. The venue tweeted a...

There is a lot of chatter on Twitter/X regarding Kamala Harris' bizarre word salads. For a long time, people have just assumed she is a moron, and I admit that this has been my working theory. She rose through the ranks of Democratic politics on the back of relationships with powerful people, implying that intelligence was not the driving force in her rise to power. She certainly is not charismatic, regardless of what the current propaganda keeps trying to sell to us. Until the media decided that they had no choice but to back her with all their firepower, they...

He was going 96 in a 55 with blood alcohol level 0.128! He lied to police about being deaf in an attempt to avoid arrest.