Free Republic

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s latest strikes on Lebanon and Iran have made clear that U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who started the war in lockstep, want different things.Trump had publicly warned Israel not to strike Beirut in its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. When it did, on Sunday, Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at Israel for the first time since the April ceasefire. Israel then struck Iran, with which Trump has been engaged in weeks of high-stakes negotiations.The fighting has since died down, but the differences between the two leaders are likely to persist.That’s...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military launched airstrikes and Iran retaliated Wednesday following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz that U.S. President Donald Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic.Iran launched attacks in Bahrain and Kuwait, which both sounded alerts and fired air defenses in response. Iran also said it targeted an air base in Jordan hosting U.S. forces, which was not immediately acknowledged either by American or Jordanian officials.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on Iran following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz that President Donald Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic.U.S. Central Command said on social media that the strikes would be "a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression." Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane that Iran has effectively closed during the war, before saying that the wave of American attacks in the south has "subsided."Trump said earlier...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has issued a pardon to Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who served nearly two years in prison for making illegal stock trades based on inside information after he left office. Buyer was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2023 for trades made while working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000, representing the amount of the illegal gains, and pay a $10,000 fine. He was released in 2025.

NEW YORK -- Ten-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson confirmed Wednesday in a video posted to social media that he's retiring from the NFL to take a job with CBS Sports. Wilson's announcement came two days after news broke that he was finalizing a deal to become an analyst on CBS' Sunday NFL pregame show. "As I enter this next chapter with CBS Sports and 'The NFL Today,' I'm so blessed to continue doing what I love most -- being around the greatest game in the world," he said in the video. Wilson played 14 seasons after being taken by...

A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that the Pentagon illegally banned transgender troops. In a 2-1 ruling, the DC Circuit Court Appeals sided with crazed Biden judge Ana Reyes and said the Trump Administration’s transgender troop policy violated the Constitution. The Associated Press reported: A Trump administration policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeal court judges ruled on Monday. The majority opinion by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit largely upholds a March 2025 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington,...

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who was hired to oversee reforms in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, chose to resign rather than face disciplinary action for interfering with an investigation into his conduct, Mayor Jacob Frey announced Tuesday. O’Hara, who led local police during the recent federal immigration crackdown in the city, was under investigation on accusations that he was engaging in intimate relationships with city employees. The mayor told O’Hara he would be disciplined, which could include his termination. He chose to resign instead, Frey said. “It was an extremely painful decision, obviously, but I concluded that that...

Any discussion of leadership change in Tehran appears to be out.CAIRO (AP) — A deal appears to be emerging between the United States and Iran to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, and U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend said it had been “largely negotiated.”It is not clear when or how the deal might be finalized and when its various parts will take effect. Trump spoke after calls with allies in the Middle East, including a separate call with Israel. Details come from two regional officials and a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity...

A U.S. citizen was found not guilty Tuesday of illegally voting in the 2018 election when she was a lawful permanent resident of the United States. A guilty verdict would have led to up to 18 months in prison for Maria Dearaujo, 63. But Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Chris Brown sided with the defense’s argument of entrapment. This generally entails a government actor leading a person into committing a crime they wouldn’t have otherwise committed. Brown, a Democrat, said Dearaujo’s trial testimony lines up with the documentary evidence. She admitted to “inconvenient” facts like having voted when she knew...

The NAACP is calling on Black athletes and fans to boycott the athletic programs of public universities in states that are taking steps that the nation's oldest civil rights group says are restricting Black voting rights. The NAACP's campaign calls out Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and South Carolina as states to boycott, arguing that the athletic programs of those states' flagship universities are especially reliant on Black athletic talent and should protect Black political interests. The Congressional Black Caucus on Monday sent a letter to the commissioners of the SEC and ACC athletic conferences, as well as NCAA...

“WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday that it is creating a $1.7 billion fund to compensate prosecuted allies of the Republican president after he moved to drop his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was announced by the Justice Department as part of a deal to resolve President Donald Trump's case over the leak of his tax returns. ”

On May 14, 2026, just months before we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the USA, the Associated Press floated the idea of gun control for the exact type black powder muskets that were used in the American Revolution. The AP used an X post to say, “A musket from 1776 can fire a lead ball at a velocity of around 1,000 feet per second.” They added, “Imagine what that can do to a human body. Yet under federal and most state laws, it’s exempt from gun regulations. Many antique or replica guns aren’t considered firearms and even convicted felons can...

Whitmire says redistricting will be debated in Austin By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press Sept. 3, 2003, 3:12PM The first Democratic senator to break ranks with the boycotting legislators who fled to New Mexico said today that ultimately congressional redistricting will have to be debated on the Texas Senate floor. Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, said if Republican Gov. Rick Perry decides to continue calling special legislative sessions on the issue, the governor can outlast the 10 Senate Democrats who remain in Albuquerque, N.M. "We cannot remain in New Mexico indefinitely. At some point in time, unless you're prepared...

Two Israeli political heavyweights on Sunday said they would join forces in elections scheduled for later this year in an effort to unseat longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served as prime ministers in a rotation agreement as part of a coalition government they formed in 2021, ending 12 years of Netanyahu’s rule. Now they plan to merge their parties into single faction headed by Bennett, calling it a partnership between the center and the right. Bennett said if elected, the new government on its first day would establish a state commission of inquiry into the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A team of researchers has uncovered what they say is the first reported use of artificial intelligence to direct a hacking campaign in a largely automated fashion. The AI company Anthropic said this week that it disrupted a cyber operation that its researchers linked to the Chinese government. The operation involved the use of an artificial intelligence system to direct the hacking campaigns, which researchers called a disturbing development that could greatly expand the reach of AI-equipped hackers.While concerns about the use of AI to drive cyber operations are not new, what is concerning about the new...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Okello Chatrie’s cellphone gave him away.Chatrie made off with $195,000 from the bank he robbed in suburban Richmond, Virginia, and eluded the police until they turned to a powerful technological tool that erected a virtual fence and allowed them collect the location history of cellphone users near the crime scene.The geofence warrant police served on Google found that Chatrie’s cellphone was among a handful of devices in the vicinity of the bank around the time it was robbed.Now the Supreme Court will decide whether geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches. It’s the latest...

The U.S. Navy is reviewing the design and costs of one of its most high-tech and expensive warships — the Ford-class aircraft carrier — and the service’s top boss is not ruling out canceling future versions of its design. Navy Secretary John Phelan told reporters Tuesday that the review, which should be complete next month, was “a prudent and practical” move aimed at examining “the costs of the designs and the systems to make sure that they make sense and they have all the systems and requirements that we want going forward.” The review of the design comes after years...

Despite listing the charges in the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center and without even questioning their validity, the Associated Press writes it off as a 'political weapon' on the part of the Trump administration.The AP's Collin Binkley, Alanna Durkin Richer, and Rebecca Boone came up with this remarkable summary of the indictment on Tuesday in "Southern Poverty Law Center charged with defrauding donors with payments to extremist informants."They gave an inclusive summary of the serious charges against the SPLC ...before essentially writing them off as politically motivated.

An $81 billion Warner-Paramount mega merger has received shareholders’ stamp of approval, propelling a deal that could vastly reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape closer to the finish line… That corporate drama may now be over, but the implications remain. Thousands of actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals have voiced “unequivocal opposition” to the deal, in a letter arguing that further consolidation will lead to job losses and fewer choices for filmmakers and movie goers… The merger would bring together two of Hollywood’s remaining five legacy studios. It would also join two major streaming platforms — Paramount+ and...