Free Republic

“Progress! Did you ever reflect that that word is almost a new one?” asked an enraptured Woodrow Wilson in 1913. “No words come more often or more naturally to the lips of modern man, as if the thing it stands for were almost synonymous with life itself, and yet men through many thousand years never talked or thought of progress.” Instead, Wilson claims, they thought only of the past as a golden era, a time in which morality and technology were superior. “Now all that has altered,” Wilson believes. “We think of the future, not the past, as the more...

https://archive.ph/CHQ6i President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed a new effort to reach a deal with Iran in a difficult call on Tuesday, three sources said, with one source saying Netanyahu's "hair was on fire" after the call. Why it matters: A revised peace memo was drafted by Qatar and Pakistan with input from the other regional mediators to try to bridge the gaps between the U.S. and Iran, the sources said. It comes with Trump vacillating over ordering a massive strike on Iran and holding out for a deal. Netanyahu is highly skeptical about the negotiations and...

As dawn breaks, hundreds of men gather at a dusty square in Chaghcharan, the capital of Ghor province in Afghanistan. They line the roadside with weary faces, hoping someone will come along offering any work. It will determine whether their families eat that day. The likelihood of success, however, is low. Juma Khan, 45, has found just three days of work in the past six weeks that paid between 150 to 200 Afghani ($2.35-$3.13; £1.76-£2.34) per day. "My children went to bed hungry three nights in a row. My wife was crying, so were my children. So I begged a...

Senate Republicans on Tuesday vented their frustration and disappointment over President Trump’s decision to endorse state Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn (R) in the Texas Senate Republican primary, a move that deals a crushing blow to Cornyn’s hopes of winning the May 26 runoff. “I don’t understand. He is an ethically challenged individual,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said of Paxton, who was charged with defrauding investors in a Dallas-area tech startup before he completed a pretrial diversion program. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she was “supremely disappointed” in Trump’s endorsement of Paxton over Cornyn. “I don’t understand...

[cut] Despite the headlines in hostile media (regurgitated by TDSers), the Republican Party is remarkably unified behind Trump, who can end the careers of state senators in Indiana or a United States senator like Bill Cassidy in Louisiana. Trump can do that because — and only because — the party’s voters are with him. If House elections have indeed reached a rough equilibrium since 2020, there will be no wave, and even a pickup of just eight to 10 seats through redistricting could save the Republican majority by the skin of its teeth. Democrats (and TDSers) are counting on this...

Most voters think President Trump made the wrong decision to go to war with Iran, a New York Times/Siena poll found, leaving the Republican Party on rocky political footing heading into the midterm elections as his approval rating sinks and economic concerns rise.Majorities of voters said that the war was not worth the costs and held deeply pessimistic views about the economy.Mr. Trump’s approval rating — a key historical predictor of how a president’s party will fare in an election — has sunk to a second-term low in Times/Siena polls of 37 percent amid the deeply unpopular Middle East conflict....

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed not to "walk away" from Number 10 and insisted that he will stay to "fight the next election". The Prime Minister refused to set out a transition timetable on Monday amid mounting pressure, with growing suggestions that he could face Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting in any potential future leadership battle. Asked if his time as prime minister had effectively come to an end, Starmer said: "No, we've got a lot of work to do. "I'm very focused on what I consider to be my responsibility, my duty, and that is to the country." It...

President Donald Trump said Monday that he is calling off an attack on Iran planned for Tuesday because regional leaders had urged him to allow negotiations to continue and that a “very acceptable” deal for the U.S. was at hand.Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates asked him “to hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, a Deal...

A Minnesota county prosecutor on Monday announced charges against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in the nonfatal shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Trump administration’s crackdown in the state. The officer, Christian Castro, is charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a news conference. A warrant was issued for his arrest. “Mr. Castro is an ICE agent, but his federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in...

Iran has reportedly begun dumping oil into the Persian Gulf after running out of storage capacity for excess crude. Images allegedly showing oil residue in the waters around Kharg Island began circulating around 10 days ago, with more continuing to emerge as time has gone on. Some reports warn that the situation is rapidly becoming an environmental disaster, as Iran’s coastline has reportedly become heavily coated in oil, which is now said to be spreading to the shores of neighboring countries, including Kuwait.

In a disturbing snapshot of today’s Britain, the Henry Jackson Society published figures after this month’s local elections suggesting that more than 570 of new councillors were what it classed as “sectarian-style” candidates. The criteria used to define this were the emphases those candidates had, in their campaigns, put on issues of “Muslim communal grievance” and “transnational Muslim causes”. The Green Party, illustrating how it has stopped focusing on the environment or ecology, accounted for 350 of those councillors. What this has to do with local government is unclear; what it has to do with a complete failure of certain...

DONALD Trump has warned Taiwan not to declare independence after his crunch talks with Xi Jinping at his Beijing summit. The US president revealed Xi asked him directly if America would intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion to which he refused to answer.

Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert endorsed Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie Friday despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to primary challenge him. Trump launched an aggressive effort to unseat Massie by endorsing his opponent, Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, and has harshly criticized Massie over his criticisms of the Iran war, his opposition of the big, beautiful bill and his push to release the files surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. Four days before Massie’s primary, Boebert said on X that Massie “loves America and is fighting to save it,” while also praising Trump in the same statement. “Below is my friend Thomas Massie. He...

California remains the largest offender of DHS sanctuary jurisdictions violations House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chairman Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) chaired a high-stakes hearing Thursday exposing the deadly consequences of so-called sanctuary policies, using Fairfax County, Virginia, as a case study in how local officials prioritize illegal aliens over public safety. In his opening statement and pointed questioning, McClintock dismantled the “nullification” doctrine embraced by sanctuary jurisdictions, likening it to John C. Calhoun’s failed states’ rights theory that once threatened the Republic. “These nullification or sanctuary jurisdictions now extend to 11 states–coincidentally the same number as...

On Shabbat morning of February 28, as Jews gathered in synagogue to read from the Torah about the importance of remembering – and destroying – the evil Amalek, American and Israeli fighter jets began their own destruction of the Iranian military. Since then, not only have America and Israel been cooperating at closer levels than ever before, but for the first time, Jewish and Christian soldiers have been fighting shoulder to shoulder, representing a new chapter in Judeo-Christian civilization. Ten weeks later, this coming Shabbat will serve as another historic milestone. Never before in American history has a president invited...

If you want to know how far some liberals are willing to go to register their fear and loathing of President Trump, just read the recent opinion piece by Frank Bruni in the New York Times. (...) Platner has said he is a communist. He said cops are bastards. He called people who post online “retarded.” He said war was “the most enjoyable experience of my life.” Working as a bartender, he wondered “Why don’t black people tip?” And speaking about women who are concerned about sexual assault, he wrote that “Rape is a real thing. If you’re so worried...

Jay Jones, the Virginia attorney general who fantasized about executing a Republican colleague and wished death on his children, has not developed a reputation for thoughtful reflection. So perhaps it’s unsurprising that, in his typographically-challenged frenzy to salvage Virginia Democrats’ gerrymandering efforts, he has accidentally made a case to the U.S. Supreme Court against the months-long “election season” that his fellow Democrats prize. The only thing that could make the cosmic irony sweeter would be the Supreme Court taking Jones up on his request to interpret the Constitution as mandating a single Election Day. The Virginia Constitution requires constitutional referendums,...

An anti-corruption association accused the RN of using European funds to train its members, including Bardella, to address the media during the 2022 French presidential election campaign. The complaint, filed in Paris last December by anti-graft association AC!!Anti-Corruption, was forwarded by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) to the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) for assessment. "Following a preliminary review, an investigation has been opened on suspicion of fraud," said the source. Bardella's mentor, Marine Le Pen, is seeking to overturn a court ruling that convicted her of embezzlement in 2025 and could derail her presidential bid next year. If...

Washington — As inflation rose to its highest rate in years and CBS News polling shows high prices at the pump are causing financial strain for many Americans, President Trump told reporters Tuesday, "I don't think about Americans' financial situation" as a motivation for negotiations with Iran, and said he is only concerned with preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. When asked by a reporter how much Americans' finances are "motivating you to make a deal," Mr. Trump responded: "Not even a little bit."

The full nationalisation of British Steel is expected to be announced in the king’s speech this week, a year after the government took over the daily running of the loss-making business from its Chinese owner. The steelmaker, which employs 3,500 people at its plant in Scunthorpe, came under government control last April amid fears that its owner, Jingye, was planning to shut down the site. British Steel operates the last two remaining blast furnaces in the UK, but its economic control remains with the Chinese company, which bought it out of insolvency in early 2020. An announcement confirming the plans...