Free Republic

A stable peace appears elusive, some former officials say President Trump’s new plan to wrest control of the Strait of Hormuz by resuming strikes and reimposing the blockade is his third major shift in military strategy as he searches for a way to turn the tables on Iran in the nearly five-month-old war. Trump has tried air and missile attacks, a naval quarantine and now the calibrated use of firepower to try to coerce Tehran to agree to his terms, in addition to diplomatic inducements. But Iran has exploited its proximity to a major oil export route to defy Washington...

Although Russia has not directly intervened in the US-Israeli war with Iran, the conflict has underscored the nature and extent of its strategic partnership with the Islamic Republic. Moscow has provided Tehran with satellite targeting data for strikes on US forces as well as delivered advanced fiber-optic drone technology. It has amplified Iran’s propaganda campaign against the West, while benefiting from the war’s spillover effects. The Russia-Iran axis poses a real threat to the US and its allies; it demands a coherent and resolute response. Why It Matters for the US Russia is arming Iran. Russia has a long history...

The Iranian regime unveiled a shocking giant mural in central Tehran on Wednesday depicting President Donald Trump lying in a coffin and captioned with the brazen threat, “We kill Trump.” The mural, erected in Tehran’s Islamic Revolution Square, shows Trump with his hands folded across his chest and his face protruding from the coffin. It was unveiled just weeks after the funeral of Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed at the outset of the U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, where crowds were filmed chanting slogans calling for death to America. It remains unclear who commissioned the mural,...

Vice President JD Vance ruled out on Wednesday the possibility of the United States conducting a ground invasion of Iran as hostilities with the Middle Eastern country resume.The vice president said that if there is going to be regime change in Iran, then it would have to come from the Iranian people and not outside forces like the United States. “If the Iranian people want to rise up and change their government, that’s up to them,” Vance said during an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “But we’re not going to send 150,000 ground troops in order to accomplish a...

The New Mexico Environment Department on Friday published a “Climate Action Plan” that contains more than three dozen steps to meet Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. NMED officials collaborated with their counterparts at the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to craft the plan, which they describe as a roadmap to a carbon-neutral future for the state. Officials said the plan protects energy industry jobs for New Mexicans while also cutting emissions and tending to the state’s finite natural resources. “The New Mexico Climate Action Plan is more than a set of goals —...

After decades of climate panic, the left quietly abandoned the weather—proof its causes shift not with science or facts, but with whatever outrage best sustains power, protest, and cultural revolt. “Stand with Ukraine! Free Palestine! No one is illegal!” Did I forget any other empty slogans? For the last eight years, the basement-dwelling interlocutors of the left have screamed and yelled for revolution, bearing their signs, blocking the streets, and bawling in front of politicians’ homes. Conservatives and the general public have endured these mantras blasted all over social media and the airwaves. These empty epithets have dominated college campuses,...

Recent images purportedly depicting the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during its closest approach to Mars last week have erupted in controversy online, as many took to social media with theories about what the object’s unusual shape could mean about its nature and origins. The new images obtained last week by NASA’s Perseverance rover appear to show 3I/ATLAS streaking through the Martian night sky as it passed through the field of view of the robotic explorer’s Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) from its position in Jezero Crater. The recent imagery was originally uploaded to NASA’s multimedia page in raw format. Since that time,...

​​​​​​As expected, President Donald Trump’s rebuke of the climate change hysteria in front of the pious apparatchiks at the United Nations sent the media into a tailspin, with The New York Times leading the pack. Times climate reporters Somini Sengupta and Lisa Friedman snorted at Trump following his September 23 speech at the U.N. for alleging that the so-called “scientific consensus on global warming was created by ‘stupid people’” and having “lashed out at wind turbines, environmentalists and allies around the world while dismissing the dangers of climate change.” Sengupta and Friedman railed that Trump’s remarks were “an extraordinary diatribe...

Embattled New York Attorney General Letitia James is hitting up supporters for big bucks just days after the Trump administration accused her of alleged fraud involving several homes she owns. The money bid is in the form of an invitation to an event on Tuesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. calling for contributions starting at $500 and climbing to an eye-popping $18,000, the maximum allowed by New York law, in support of her 2026 re-election bid. The invite features a photo of James framed by a circular gay pride flag. The high-dollar fundraiser will be hosted at the home of...

The Biden administration awarded Canadian electric bus company Lion Electric nearly $160 million to manufacture hundreds of battery-powered buses for school districts nationwide as part of its sweeping climate agenda. In recent weeks, Lion has initiated bankruptcy proceedings, laid off all employees tasked with building its buses, and paused manufacturing operations. Lion's financial demise leaves dozens of school districts—including those in California, Montana, North Dakota, Iowa, Alabama, and Maryland—questioning whether they will receive the buses the Biden administration promised them. Lion has yet to deliver $95 million worth of electric buses to 55 districts across the country, according to federal...

The Clinton Foundation raked in Millions from USAID. In 2010, USAID managed $4.4 billion for Haiti under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Clinton Foundation was a significant player in those Haiti "efforts". Where did the money go? ... Clinton Foundation audits were done by Doug Emhoff's law firm DLA PIPER. Peter Comey (1963-2023) brother of FBI James Comey, worked for DLA Piper. FOIA the audits for the "non profit". James Comey connections with HSBC Bank. Attorney General Kamala D. Harris handled the HSBC mortgage fraud settlement. They are all related by money and secrets. ... Wow. Democrats are such...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has told members of the press that members of Congress should be focusing less on arresting and deporting illegal alien criminals and more on slavery reparations. Johnson was asked on Thursday about whether he would he would honor an invitation to appear with a handful of U.S. mayors before the U.S. House Oversight Committee to testify about so-called “sanctuary cities” like Chicago, New York, Denver and Boston. Rather than answering the question, Johnson chose to play the race card instead and went off on a diatribe about slavery, reparations and how the U.S. today represents “what...

Peter Hitchens tears Net Zero to shreds, to the dismay of BBC panellists and audience members. "We didn't just close down our coal fired power stations, we blew them up, we were so certain we were right to do so. At the same time, China is building the equivalent of two new coal fired power stations a week. India has a vast expansion programme of coal fired power stations." "The contribution which this country is making to these outcomes is not merely minimal, it's non-existent. Everything that we do is completely blotted out by what much larger countries are doing...

The European Space Agency revealed that the earth is now 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than before, and recent assessments have deduced that this change risks crossing delicate climate tipping points. Even minor fluctuations in the planet’s temperature are felt at Earth's extreme poles—the North and South poles. While the drastic implications of global warming in Greenland and the Arctic are not new information, a new study predicted that the latter will be ice-free in three years’ time. By summer 2027, the Arctic Ocean will witness its first ice-free day at the current pace of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the...

Shell announced its withdrawal from the Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm project in the US, resulting in a write-off of nearly $1 billion. The decision was disclosed in the company's quarterly earnings report on Thursday, marking another setback for the American offshore wind industry. Shell's decision to exit the project comes as the industry faces challenges from President Donald Trump's executive orders aimed at halting its development. This is a significant shift from the support the industry enjoyed under Joe Biden, despite the recent increase in costs. Shell's Chief Financial Officer, Sinead Gorman, explained the decision during a call with...

Trump pulls the US out of the Paris Accord. And the long-suffering Green New Deal is on the deathbed in Europe. Joining Forces in Europe Euractiv reports France’s Far-Right Asks EPP to End the Green Deal Together. French far-right leader Jordan Bardella senses an opening for a right-wing coalition to tear down the European Green Deal. Bardella, chairman of the European Parliament’s far-right Patriots for Europe grouping and president of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, said Monday morning that he would ask Manfred Weber, leader of the center-right European People’s Party, to “join forces” and halt the European Union’s efforts...

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president earlier today, but the Biden administration rammed through a number of last minute decisions before that took place. One of them was the finalization of a loan to Rivian worth up to $6.6 billion. The Department of Energy said the money will be used to finance the development and construction of a new manufacturing plant near Social Circle, Georgia. The facility will span approximately nine million square feet and have the capability to build up to 400,000 crossovers and SUVs annually. The plant will build models based on Rivian’s new midsize...

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions (methane, nitrous oxide, and some other stuff) are pollutants under the Clean Air Act and that the government has the authority to curb them. Since then, the world has been subjected to numerous climate-related laws and treaties, along with assorted governmental, academic, and corporate pressures — all serving to hype the “existential threat” that is climate change. The number-one culprit all along has been atmospheric carbon dioxide. There is nothing inherently wrong with qualitative versus quantitative statements, but there has been an inordinate amount of hand-waving to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he will again withdraw the United States, a top carbon polluting nation, from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming and once again distancing the U.S. from its closest allies.The White House announcement, which came as Trump was sworn in Monday to a second term, echoed Trump’s actions in 2017, when he announced that the U.S. would abandon the global Paris accord. The pact is aimed at limiting long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels or, failing that, keeping...

President Joe Biden's departing green energy loan czar this week finalized a controversial $1.6 billion federal loan to a green energy company with which he had prior financial ties—a farewell shot at federal investigators who have been probing conflicts of interest in his lending office. The Department of Energy's loan to Plug Power, a hydrogen fuel developer, comes months after Republican lawmakers raised concerns about the company's past business relationship with DOE Loan Programs Office director Jigar Shah. Shortly before joining the Biden administration, Shah invested $100 million in Plug Power through a green financial firm he founded called Generate...