Free Republic

Mojtaba Khamenei has been named Iran’s new supreme leader, succeeding his father just more than a week after he was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes. A statement from the Assembly of Experts — the panel of Shia clerics responsible under Iranian law for choosing the country’s top leader — said Mojtaba Khamenei had been selected as the third leader of the Islamic Republic, according to reports from IRIB state TV and the Fars, Tasnim and ISNA news agencies. Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is widely viewed as a hard-line figure with close ties to the powerful...

Five members of Iran's women's national team are seeking asylum in Australia following the team's participation at the AFC Asian Cup, and are currently safe and being cared for by local authorities. The players defected on Monday, a day after a 2-0 defeat to the Philippines, which would ensure the team would be eliminated in the group stage. The team was scheduled to depart Gold Coast, Australia, on Monday despite airspace restrictions in the Middle East because of the Iran War, which began on Feb. 28, after the team traveled to take part in the Asian Cup. The Iran War...

Iranians have flooded social media with dark humor and mocking comments about the delayed burial of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after authorities on Wednesday canceled a planned procession and what they described as a public farewell to his body due to security concerns. The situation triggered a wave of posts across social media platforms, particularly on X, many of them sarcastic, angry or openly celebratory. One widely shared comment drew a comparison with the authorities’ treatment of families whose relatives were killed during protests.

On Saturday, a fleet of boats filled the waterways of Clearwater, Florida, in an effort to rally for President Donald Trump and break a Guinness World Record. The crowds were attempting to break the world record for the largest boat parade, which is currently held by a 2014 boat parade in Malaysia. Officials are still reviewing the footage from the event to determine if it breaks the current record. The boat parades have quickly become a popular way to rally. Nicknamed 'Trumptillas,' supporters have gathered boats, jet skis, kayaks, and canoes in cities like Delaware, Alabama, and New Jersey.

Matt Bergman, founding attorney of Social Media Victims Law Center, said the Meta CEO's testimony is "a moment that families across this country have been waiting for." "For the first time, a Meta CEO will have to sit before a jury, under oath, and explain why the company released a product its own safety teams warned were addictive and harmful to children," Bergman said in a statement Tuesday. It’s the first of a consolidated group of cases — from more than 1,600 plaintiffs, including over 350 families and over 250 school districts — scheduled to be argued before a jury...

Jump to 11:07 for a quick laugh at the Iran Navy... Anyway, uh let's go to the Iranian regime's navy. All right, the Islamic Republic decided to respond to the military exercises and of course to celebrate the uh the 47th year of the Islamic Revolution. Right now the problem with this they low energy IRGC Navy this is on the IRI or Iris macaron chanting death to the US in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Let's just watch this. You'll find out what the problem is here. It's like they're forced to be there. They have absolutely no...

WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Thursday that a massive prayer event will be held on the National Mall this coming May — declaring it is time “to rededicate America as one nation under God,” as the nation celebrates its 250th birthday this year. Trump revealed the event during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton, where he also doubled down on his commitment to religious liberty in the US. Trump did not specify why May 17 was selected, however, shortly before the Declaration of Independence, the colonial Congress had declared May 17, 1776, a national day of...

Recent figures from the Central Bank of Iran highlight the scale of the problem. In the Iranian year 1403 (2024/25), the average annual gross expenditure of an urban household reached about 4.69 billion rials, or roughly 391 million rials per month, marking a year-on-year increase of nearly 38%. Of this amount, close to 30% was spent on food and beverages alone. For an average household of 3.2 people, monthly food expenses exceeded 116 million rials.

HISTORIC LAUNCH TO LOWER DRUG PRICES FOR AMERICAN PATIENTS: Today, President Donald J. Trump announced the launch of TrumpRx.gov. Through the website, patients will be able to access large discounts on many of the most popular and highest-priced medicines in the country, paying prices in line with the lowest paid by other developed nations (known as the most-favored-nation, or MFN, price). Today’s launch features drugs made by the first five manufacturers to reach MFN pricing deals with the Trump Administration: AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer. Additional drugs from other companies that have signed MFN pricing deals...

President Trump was right about tariffs, and his policy of trade reciprocity has contributed to the Trumpian economic boom. Friday afternoon president trump posted an op-ed piece on "the wall street journal" web site entitled my tariffs have brought America back. And then it appeared in the Saturday morning print edition. I don't think people focus on it because everybody was talking about Mr. Trump's superb nomination of Kevin Warsh as federal reserve chairman. But it is worth revisiting this piece which is kind of the rebuttal for all the criticisms by "the wall street journal" editorial board regarding Mr....

It’s the same dark money, with new signs. Anti-ICE protests in Minnesota may appear to be “grassroots” efforts organized by concerned citizens, but they’re really funded with megadonor money — some coming from China. A so-called “ICE Out” march drew an estimated 15,000 left-wing political activists to a frozen, snow-covered Minneapolis on Friday, with attendees chanting “ICE out now” and demanding an end to federal immigration enforcement in the city.

Army Ranger and GOP Rep. Warren Davidson clashed with Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters for demonizing ICE agents and suggesting that a “Civil War” in America is imminent. “The invasion you are fueling of our country is TREASON!” Davidson snapped at Waters. “Silence, the time is mine!”

Any organisation that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,’ says Kaja Kallas. The EU has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, ending years of division over the issue in response to the regime’s brutal repression of protesters. “Repression cannot go unanswered,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, on Thursday. The paramilitary organisation has played a significant role in suppressing demonstrations in Iran. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” she wrote on X. Hannah Neumann, chair of the European...

The explosion of the budget deficit was one of the most worrisome things that happened post-Covid. While inflation peaked in 2022, the deficit kept getting worse because of the “fiscal doom loop” caused by bloated spending and higher interest rates. At this time last year things were still looking extremely grim. The deficit was stuck around $2.1 trillion on a rolling 12-month basis, or 7.3% of GDP--the largest non-emergency deficit we’ve ever had. And the10-year Treasury yield was stuck above 4.7%, worsening the situation daily. Now, though, we are experiencing a dramatic improvement. The latest numbers which we got yesterday...

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Iranian opposition figure and son of Iran’s last monarch, has issued his first public call to action since the start of the current wave of nationwide protests, urging Iranians to take part in a coordinated act of protest later this week. In a video message released on Tuesday, coinciding with the tenth day of widespread demonstrations across Iran, Pahlavi called on citizens to chant slogans simultaneously on Thursday and Friday evenings, whether in the streets or from their homes. His appeal comes amid one of the most sustained periods of civil unrest in recent years, driven...

Two cities; Abdan and Malik Shahi have now officially fallen as the police and the IRGC withdrew their forces. While this is good news, obviously this is a temporary so-called liberation. This actually makes these two cities now extremely dangerous because of course tomorrow morning we are expecting the IRGC to send extra reinforcements to make a point to take them back. They're going to go absolutely mental. Now in this live stream we're going to give you guys the latest updates coming from inside Iran that the mainstream media is not showing you. And we're also going to talk...

The US strikes Venezuela, 'Maduro captured and flown out'. 'Large-scale strike', an extraordinary nighttime operation. Lens on Maduro's last interview before capture. 'To Americans, I've always said, Venezuela a brother nation'. Maduro - If they want oil, we're ready for US investment...Stunning American military operation. A nation's sitting leader plucked from office. Multiple explosions rang out in Caracas. Low-flying aircraft swept through Venezuela's capital city. The US attack lasted less than 30 minutes. At least 7 blasts sent people rushing into the streets. Venezuelan Govt: US hit civilian and military installations. Smoke seen rising from hangar of a military base...

Loud explosions, accompanied by sounds resembling aircraft flyovers, were heard in Caracas around 2:00 am (06:00 GMT) Saturday, an AFP journalist reported. The explosions come as US President Donald Trump, who has deployed a navy task force to the Caribbean, has raised the possibility of ground strikes against Venezuela. Thick columns of black smoke also rose over the city’s skyline. On Monday, Trump claimed a strike had been carried out against a "docking facility" in the country, though today’s blasts appear to be centered within the capital's metropolitan core rather than on the coast.

A Minneapolis child care center has become the unlikely focus of social media speculation and regulatory scrutiny this week after digital sleuths discovered its public contact information led directly to the office of Governor Tim Walz.The facility, identified as Sweet Angel Child Care, went viral on Monday when users on X (formerly Twitter) noted that the phone number listed for the business on Google Maps connected callers to the governor's administration rather than the day care itself. The anomaly surfaced shortly after YouTuber Nick Shirley featured the location in a video investigation released Friday, which sought to verify the legitimacy...

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump has indicated that the U.S. has “hit” a dock facility along a shore as he wages a pressure campaign on Venezuela, but the U.S. offered few details. Trump initially seemed to confirm a strike in what appeared to be an impromptu radio interview Friday, and when questioned Monday by reporters about “an explosion in Venezuela,” he said the U.S. struck a facility where boats accused of carrying drugs “load up.” “There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump said as he met...