Free Republic

Microsoft has terminated a set of services for the Israeli military after an investigation suggested Israel was using the company’s cloud computing technology for mass surveillance of Palestinians. In a statement posted the company’s blog, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company had “ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense.” The move comes after an investigation by The Guardian and Israel’s +972 Magazine in early-August reported that Israel’s military intelligence unit, known as 8200, relied on Microsoft Azure to store millions of phone calls made by Palestinians in Gaza and...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “The Brief,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard responded to arguments that Hamas could simply end the war right now if it surrendered and released hostages by saying that “Hamas must release all hostages. They must do that. Humanity must win. But this will not happen as long as the Israeli government keeps playing games on the back of its own Israeli citizens.” …

Angelina Jolie spoke up about the free speech debate going on in the United States. The Oscar-winning actress was asked at a film festival in Spain over the weekend, “What do you fear as an artist and an American?” “It is a very difficult question,” Jolie responded, according The Guardian, “I love my country, but at this time, I don’t recognize my country,” Jolie said. “I’ve always lived internationally, my family is international, my friends, my life.” She went on to say, “My worldview is equal, united and international. Anything anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms from...

George Soros has been the go-to bogeyman for the American right — and right-wing leaders around the world — for years. The 95-year-old billionaire has funneled money into causes around the globe, supporting democratic endeavors, immigration efforts and criminal justice reform through his Open Society Foundations, which he founded in 1979. In the intervening decades, Soros, with his large network of progressive causes and opposition to strong-arm governments, has become the target of conspiracy theories in areas that range from Malaysia to his birth country of Hungary, where a so-called “Stop Soros” law made it illegal to aid undocumented immigrants...

Dozens of social media posts and messages about the murder of Charlie Kirk, including some that celebrated his death, are being spotlighted by conservative activists, Republican elected officials and a doxxing website as part of an online campaign to punish the posters behind the messages. Prominent far-right influencer Laura Loomer, a US senator, and a site called “Expose Charlie’s Murderers” have all drawn attention to people who have posted messages about Kirk’s Wednesday assassination. The campaigns show how social media posts or personal messages — even by accounts with few followers or from people who are not public figures —...

Vladimir Putin started it. Joe Biden didn’t stop it. But, no matter his efforts to the contrary, this is the week in which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine becomes US President Donald Trump’s war. The most powerful office in the world doesn’t always invite choices. Trump is mandated to address the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II because the United States was involved, under his predecessor, as Ukraine’s key ally and sponsor. Trump could have dropped the war entirely. But instead, he chose to impose the force of his personality, initially through the idea he could end it in...

Donald Trump told a private gathering of donors last year that he once sought to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine by threatening to “bomb the sh*t out of Moscow” in retaliation, according to audio provided to CNN. “With Putin I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the sh*t out of Moscow. I’m telling you I have no choice,’” Trump said during one 2024 fundraiser, according to the audio. “And then [Putin] goes, like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ But he believed me 10%.” The remarks, which came as Trump made his case for a...

SNIPA new universe of deportable peopleWOLF: You have this exclusive report about a large universe of new people the Trump administration might be trying to deport. What did you find out?ALVAREZ: The plans that the administration has been working on are targeting people who came into the US unlawfully and then applied for asylum while in the country.The plan here is to dismiss those asylum claims, which could affect potentially hundreds of thousands of people and then make them immediately deportable.It also puts the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency responsible for managing federal immigration benefits, at the...

Monday on CNN’s “Inside Politics,” host Dana Bash said President Donald Trump was acting as the “arsonist” by sending the National Guard to Los Angeles. Reporter Manu Raju said, “Just to get the point of how much Donald Trump wants this fight, I mean, he’s been posting and talking about it pretty much nonstop over the weekend, including just moments ago saying if we had not done this, send the National Guard in Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated. Now, I’m not quite sure if that’s exactly the case of what people are saying on the ground here. But...

Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said Wednesday on CNN’s “News Central” that President Donald Trump was trying to destroy the “fabric of America” so he could be a king. Meeks said, “This is about retribution. This is about individuals as we’ve seen again and again, universities, law firms, any individual that Trump perceives to be his enemy, it’s about retribution. It’s about him wanting to be a king. This is a danger and a violation of the Constitution of the United States of America, which does give individuals the freedom of speech and the freedom of standing up and educating individuals...

As President Donald Trump attempts to muscle his GOP agenda through a narrow House majority, Rep. Chip Roy is perhaps the most important holdout to win over. He may also be the toughest. Speaker Mike Johnson and his team have been confident they can pass Trump’s massive reconciliation bill, because they don’t believe any Republican will want to stand in the way and face Trump’s wrath. But Roy, the unapologetic fiscal hawk, is the rare GOP lawmaker willing to publicly challenge the president. He has already survived multiple calls by his own party to oust him — including from Trump...

Talk about having egg on your face. In an article published Tuesday on their website, CNN decided to make a badly-cooked omelette out of itself by admitting President Donald Trump was actually on to something about falling egg prices, but still attempted to say he was still peddling “fiction.” CNN Business Executive Editor David Goldman just couldn't bring himself to fully admit that Trump was right and wrote an oxymoronic headline that reeked of contradiction, “Trump’s egg price fiction has suddenly become reality.” Yeah, we couldn’t make sense of that logic either.

For about 30 hours, the illusion of transatlantic unity over Ukraine was maintained. Europe and Ukraine had demanded a deal on the 30-day unconditional ceasefire the Trump administration proposed two months earlier. European leaders said US President Donald Trump had personally backed their plan – and threat of sanctions if Russia declined to sign up by Monday – in a Saturday phone call, a picture of which they posted online from Kyiv. Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, even joined a chorus of US allies demanding Russia adhere to the ceasefire demand. But then Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke,...

Air traffic controllers who lost communication with aircraft at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, leading to hundreds of delays for more than a week, are taking special government leave for traumatic situations to recover from the stress. The controllers in Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control, which coordinates planes arriving at Newark, “temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control, unable to see, hear, or talk to them,” on Monday April 28, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a statement shared with CNN. The connectivity between Federal Aviation Administration radar and the frequencies that...

US President Donald Trump has signaled a potential U-turn on his trade war with China amid continued market volatility, saying the high tariffs on Chinese goods will “come down substantially, but it won’t be zero.” Trump’s remarks, made at a White House news event Tuesday, appear to mark a rhetorical climbdown after weeks of tough posturing and tit-for-tat retaliation that sent tariffs on China beyond a staggering 145%. “145% is very high and it won’t be that high,” Trump said in a question-and-answer session with reporters in the Oval Office. “It won’t be anywhere near that high. It’ll come down...

Trump's tariff announcement introduced uncertainty to the markets. Leading to the worst April performance in a long long time for stocks. The media believe this is a threat to Trump's support, but is it?

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared detailed plans about a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen on a second Signal group chat that included his wife, lawyer and brother, three people familiar with the chat told CNN.The revelation comes as some of Hegseth’s closest advisers have begun sounding the alarm about the secretary’s judgment, including his former press secretary, John Ullyot, and three former senior officials Hegseth fired last week — his top adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll, who served as chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense.

CNN anchor Dana Bash cut away from President Donald Trump’s Oval Office remarks on Monday to protest his claim that CNN “hates our country.” Trump made the comment during an Oval Office meeting with Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele, jabbing at the network over coverage of illegal immigration, particularly at the southern border, and saying that CNN “didn’t like putting out good numbers” that reflected well on his presidency. “We’re a great country, but we had stupid people running this country. And I can say what they’ve done to us at the border should never and can never be forgotten. It’s...

In private discussions hours before China announced new retaliatory tariffs, the Trump administration warned Chinese officials against such a move, according to a source familiar with the discussions. The Chinese were also told – once again – that Chinese President Xi Jinping should request a call with US President Donald Trump. Instead, US officials woke up to news of increased Chinese tariffs and no request for a leader level call. Xi also made comments that only dug him in further. “For over 70 years, China’s development has relied on self-reliance and hard work — never on handouts from others, and...

As Wall Street heads into a new quarter, a flurry of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are set to go into effect. That has traders on edge and has helped put US stocks in their worst first-quarter slump in years.Wall Street has been rocked with volatility this year as Trump’s tariff proposals have kept investors in a cloud of uncertainty. The benchmark S&P 500 index is down 4.9% for the year, its worst start since 2022.US stocks were mixed Monday as traders tried to stage an afternoon rally. The Dow was up by around 430 points, or 1%, reversing course after...