Free Republic

Leaks the past few months out of David Ellison‘s inner circle said the CEO would take his Paramount ball and leave California if state attorneys general didn’t back off on their antitrust suit to stop the $111 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery. And now it looks like the ball really is in play. Paramount brass have told key officials and stakeholders the company is “deadly serious” about leaving California and the home of Hollywood after over 100 years, sources tell me. Among those told a deposit has been put on the moving trucks is L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and...

Rafael Vela Gonzalez was a few steps away from the front door of his Silver Lake home when two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents grabbed him in early January. The 66-year-old, originally from El Salvador, had been in the U.S. since he was a teenager. ... He has spent nearly eight months in ICE detention ... The 81-year-old and Vela Gonzalez have been together for more than 30 years" ... Vela Gonzalez arrived in time to qualify for the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which provided nearly three million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. He applied for...

The Los Angeles Police Department said it is investigating after an officer fatally shot a suspect who was reportedly armed with a pole saw Monday morning. Police responded a call about a man armed with what was believed to be a metal pipe at approximately 9:54 a.m. in the area of Gillette and Bridge Street in Boyle Heights. Upon arrival, officers located the suspect, who was armed with what turned out to be a large tree trimmer with an approximate 12-inch serrated blade, police said. The suspect reportedly failed to comply with orders to drop the pole and continued advancing...

A popular Egyptian TV presenter has been sentenced to death by hanging after she was convicted for her role in a massive drug trafficking ring. Sarah Khalifa, a 39-year-old former host of Egyptian crime show “Mission Impossible” sobbed in court as she was ordered to be executed in Cairo, Al-Jazeera reported. “Please listen to me, sir. My parents raised me well; they are people who pray, and I don’t need drug money,” Khalifa, who has more than 2 million followers on social media, pleaded to officials. Khalifa and 11 others were sentenced to death after they were convicted of operating...

US surveilance picked up underground missile siloh opening to launch, and fired from Jordan down the hole, destroying the launch siloh and missile. Nematalah AlHami went on TV swearing revenge, death, destruction on America, Jooos! and their mangy little dog, too, he got a heart attack and died on live TV.

Washington — Far-right political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos is currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to the agency's online detainee database. Reports indicate Yiannopoulos, who is British, was in New Orleans ahead of a concert headlined by the artist formerly known as Kanye West scheduled for Friday night. TMZ first reported Yiannopoulos' status. CBS News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for additional details and the basis for his apprehension. ...

The Russian foreign minister said he feels sorry for the UK if it stays with Ukraine until the very endMOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Moscow is entitled to consider British missile forces' involvement in strikes on Russia as direct participation in the conflict in Ukraine, with all ensuing consequences, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. "You know, I feel sorry for the UK if it stays with Ukraine until the very end," Lavrov told Vesti journalist Pavel Zarubin. "President [Vladimir Putin] warned of our right to act in any part of the world's oceans if anyone encroaches on our interests or...

Shades of those X videos of instant karma for the would-be bully! On Friday’s CNN This Morning, Group Chat member Luke Thomas, an MMA analyst with an imposing presence who doubles as a left-wing pundit, initially sounded ready for battle. After more than a hundred House Democrats voted to block billions in military aid to Israel, Sen. John Fetterman drew his red line, saying that he would leave the Democratic Party if it went officially anti-Israel. Thomas’s tough-guy response? “Good riddance. I’ll help him pack his bags.” Macho stuff, Luke! But Thomas's bravado didn’t last. Fellow panelist Elliot Williams, a...

After the US launched a third round of strikes against Iran on Sunday morning, Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of war, posted on X: "Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay." The fresh escalation occurred after Iran's IRGC Navy said it attacked a container that was exiting the Strait of Hormuz through an unauthorised route and ignored its warnings. In a statement on X, Centcom said a civilian crew member of M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship, was missing and the vessel is unable to continue the journey due to an onboard fire and significant engine-room damage.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday revoked its authorization of Iranian oil sales after a series of attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz this week. “Iran will only reap benefits if they exhibit good behavior,” a U.S. official told CNBC. “Iran’s actions in the Strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences.” The threat to ships in Hormuz increased to “severe” on Tuesday after attacks on a liquefied natural gas tanker, an oil supertanker and an specified third tanker, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center. Hostile action by Iran is likely...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched waves of missiles and drones targeting Kyiv overnight into Monday that killed at least seven people, authorities said, hours after Ukraine’s president warned that another large-scale attack was imminent.Another 24 were wounded, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration in a post on Telegram.A residential building in the Podilskyi district partially collapsed, he said. In the Darnytsia district, several multistory buildings were damaged and people were believed to be trapped under the rubble. “These are residential buildings. Places where people slept and lived their ordinary lives,” he said. The attack, which was...

Memphis police say National Guard troops fired their weapons in the early morning hours Sunday, killing a man who was armed with a handgun. Police say officers were responding to calls of shots fired in downtown Memphis just before 4 am local time when they saw "an armed male carrying a handgun." The man — identified by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson — fled on foot, pursued by Memphis police officers along with Tennessee National Guard soldiers who are assigned to the area. What happened next was not immediately clear. "For reasons under investigation, the situation...

US-Saudi relations have significantly deteriorated in recent months amid anger in Riyadh over Washington’s decision to launch a war against Iran that has caused massive blowback for the rest of the region, a Middle Eastern intelligence official tells The Times of Israel, confirming a Wall Street Journal report. Saudi Arabia refused to allow the US to use its bases in order to conduct Project Freedom, which was aimed at breaking Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz by escorting stuck ships out of the channel. Saudi bases and airspace were critical to the operation and Riyadh’s refusal to cooperate forced...

Iran’s most senior clerics have called for the assassinations of President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declaring the leaders mahdour al-dam — or deserving of death. The 88-member Assembly of Experts issued a 10-point statement in which they said killing “the wicked prime minister of the Zionist regime” and “the criminal American president” was a religious duty that must be carried out “under any circumstances.” The clerics — who are constitutionally tasked with choosing and supervising the supreme leader — wrote that the call for their assassinations that avenging the death of supreme leader Ali Khamenei was of...

Wild video shows a protester being hit by a car outside Delaney Hall as dozens of agitators descended on the ICE facility, calling for dads to be released on Father’s Day. Footage from Sunday shows the woman waving an upside-down American flag — a symbol of distress or dissent — while blocking the Newark facility. A red Dodge Challenger then drives in, hitting the dancing protester and continuing on its way as she rolls off to shouts from others. The protester had come all the way from Minnesota and was not seriously injured, according to Visible Brigade, a New Jersey-based...

Soot-choked “black rain" has fallen across multiple districts of Moscow after Ukraine launched its largest-ever drone assault against the Russian capital, scoring a direct hit on a vital energy facility. Close to 200 long-range strike drones targeted the metropolis early on Thursday, overwhelming local air defences and setting the strategic Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya ablaze. As thick columns of dark smoke billowed thousands of feet into the air, residents in the southeastern suburbs and surrounding towns, including Balashikha and Lyubertsy, reported a fine, oily drizzle that coated vehicles, streets, and clothing in a dark, toxic residue. The multi-directional aerial...

Asked if the agreement is “final”, Trump replies, “No, it’s not final.” He added: “It’s a memorandum of understanding. And if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head.” “If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head.”

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader said Tehran would teach the attackers a “regrettable lesson” in defense of Lebanon after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday. “Neither the American diplomatic smile is trustworthy, nor is Israel’s savagery tolerable!" Mohammad Mokhber said on X. "We will teach the aggressors a lesson they will regret,” he added.

Reports emerging from the region suggest that Iran’s leadership may be divided over a proposed deal with the United States, raising new doubts about whether an agreement can be finalized. According to the reports, Iranian negotiators had signaled that the deal was ready to move forward. However, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has reportedly refused to approve the proposal. The reported rejection comes after claims that senior Iranian officials, including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, had presented the agreement as essentially ready without securing final approval from Khamenei. If accurate, the development could point to a...

A senior official in Hamas' internal security apparatus announced that the terror organization will "soon" carry out public executions of Gazans whom it claims acted as Israeli agents and were involved in the killings of Al-Qassam Brigades terrorists. The announcement, released via Palestinian Arab channels, stated that the decision to carry out executions was made in response to calls voiced within the Gazan public. Hamas did not provide a specific date for the executions. The terror group also claimed that its members captured an individual allegedly involved in the killing of Ezz al-Din al-Haddad, a commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades....