Free Republic

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has likely eliminated another of the prime butchers behind the Oct. 7 atrocities. And IDF also continues to eliminate Hezbollah targets on its other front.Hezbollah kills Israelis on a weekly basis and continues to devastate Israeli towns, some of which lost or suffered damage to most of their buildings in missile strikes since Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas jihadis also continue to conduct terrorist activities both in Gaza and Judea and Samaria (what they deceptively call the “West Bank”). And of course, many Oct. 7 terrorists came home to Gaza to receive a hero’s welcome and huge...

Brazilian Senator and presidential contender Flavio Bolsonaro met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the ​White House on Tuesday as he looks to move past a scandal ‌that has dented his popularity with voters ahead of Brazil's election later this year. The encounter took place in the Oval Office and was closed to the press, but the senator spoke to ​journalists at a press conference in Washington after the meeting. The senator, the ​eldest son of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, said Trump asked him ⁠about his father, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his ​involvement in...

The European Union (EU) may be gearing up to hit Google with a massive multimillion-euro fine for antitrust violations. The tech giant could be facing a penalty in the high hundreds of millions of euros, according to sources speaking to the German newspaper Handelsblatt. The final decision will reportedly rest with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and is expected to be announced before the European Commission's summer recess. The Commission typically goes on break in late July through to August, operating with a skeleton staff during this period. Google's parent company, Alphabet, is accused of violating the Digital...

Fresh strikes on southern Iran were launched by U.S. military forces early Tuesday morning targeting Iranian missile sites and vessels attempting to lay anti-shipping mines in the contested Strait of Hormuz. The targeted strikes were done “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” but the military was “using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for the U.S. military’s Central Command, said in a statement as reported by AP. Following the strikes, the BBC reports U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a deal was still possible and pointed to talks on Tuesday between...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s five-nation tour from May 15 to 20 moved through the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Italy, but Rome gave the trip its clearest strategic message. The stop in Italy showed how New Delhi is trying to widen its options in a more fragmented world by combining trade, technology, defense, connectivity, and corridor politics into a single diplomatic approach. In Rome, India and Italy elevated their relationship to a Special Strategic Partnership and adopted a joint declaration that stretched across trade, investment, supply chains, critical minerals, clean technologies, semiconductors, ports, maritime security, defense...

The U.S. and Iran are reportedly in the process of working out a deal to end hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump assured people he wasn't going to make the mistakes of the Obama Iran deal, and has placed focus on getting the highly enriched uranium to deter the nuclear threat. In fact, he was even pursuing a broader peace across the region, asking other countries like Saudi Arabia to sign on to the Abraham Accords once the Iran deal is finalized. This also may have pushed Iran to try to clean up its language when...

President Donald Trump made an important post late Monday afternoon about the highly enriched uranium that has been the focus of the deal he's been trying to achieve with Iran. Trump said that the stockpile would either have to be handed over to the U.S. or be destroyed under supervision as part of the agreement. “The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday compared Alberta’s vote on whether to move toward independence to Brexit, calling it a potential “dangerous bluff.” Danielle Smith, the premier of Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta, said last week a vote would be held Oct. 19 on whether Alberta should stay in Canada or take legal steps under the Constitution to hold a binding referendum on leaving. Carney drew on his experience with Brexit in his comments. Carney was the governor of the Bank of England in 2016 when Britain voted to leave the European Union, and he helped navigate the central...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Monday that it carried out “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran, including on missile launch sites and boats placing mines. U.S. Central Command says the strikes were done “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces” but that it was “using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.” President Donald Trump said Monday that any agreement to end the Iran war should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements from Trump’s first term aimed at normalizing relations with Israel. Trump said...

Iran warned Monday that an agreement to end the war launched by the United States and Israel was not imminent, after President Donald Trump raised and then lowered expectations that a deal may be close.

Scroll through any social media platform long enough and you’ll notice something that doesn’t quite add up. The same talking points, phrasing, and sudden outrage cycles are appearing across completely different audiences at the same time. It feels coordinated. And that’s because it often is. Foreign adversaries have turned modern technology into a new kind of warfare, one the United States hasn’t fully named, hasn’t clearly assigned ownership of, and isn’t yet equipped to fight at the speed it’s being waged. This is something more insidious than traditional espionage: the deliberate, systematic manipulation of how millions of Americans perceive reality—their...

Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that Ukraine be granted full membership of the European Union. Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, had called for the country to be given a special half-in, half-out relationship, which would mean it could participate in European summits and ministerial meetings – but not cast a vote. Mr Zelensky criticised the “associate membership” concept, branding it an “unfair” move that would leave Ukraine “voiceless”. The Ukrainian president urged the EU to commit to his country’s full entry in a letter addressed to Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of...

The president said Saudi Arabia and Qatar should “immediately” sign on to the agreements, first signed in 2020 during his first administration.President Donald Trump said Monday that any agreement with Iran should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements aimed at normalizing relations with Israel that were forged during Trump’s first term.In a social media post, Trump said negotiations are “proceeding nicely” but tied any eventual agreement to expanded participation in the agreements first signed in 2020.He pointed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar as countries that should...

The Israeli military says it has begun a wave of strikes across Lebanon following an announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his country will intensify its attacks on Hezbollah. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had launched strikes against Hezbollah sites in the Bekaa Valley in the east of Lebanon and additional areas across the country. It followed a video statement on Monday evening in which Netanyahu said Israel was "at war with Hezbollah" and that he had given the military instructions to "deal them a crushing blow". The expansion of Israel's campaign came as the Iranian government...

The political landscape of Cyprus is facing a major shakeup following Sunday’s legislative elections. Results show significant gains for the far-right, a strong showing by anti-corruption newcomers, and a victory for a prominent social media influencer. Just over 500,000 voters cast ballots to fill 56 parliamentary seats in an election widely viewed as a crucial indicator of political trends ahead of the 2028 presidential race. Traditional leaders hold on, but centrists collapse in Cyprus elections While the island’s two dominant parties maintained their top positions, centrist parties aligned with incumbent President Nicos Christodoulides suffered devastating losses. DISY (Right-wing): Retained first...

On Sunday, President Donald Trump said the deal that they are working on will involve "no dust, no dollars" and will not be like the failed Iran deal of Barack Obama, that it will be a good deal, or there will be no deal. He clapped back at criticism from people he said didn't know the Now, Trump has dropped a big update to the deal — that ultimately, it could turn out to be a more far-reaching peace deal. He said negotiations were proceeding "nicely" with Iran. Trump announced on Truth Social that he had held a conference call...

Angry young men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients at the heart of the latest outbreak of the disease in eastern Congo on Sunday evening, forcing the medical staff to scramble to evacuate the patients as gunfire rang out in the area. It was not immediately known if anyone was hurt in the attack on the Mongbwalu General Hospital but Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, told The Associated Press the attackers demanded that two bodies of their relatives be handed over to them. There was gunfire and the medics were trying to evacuate the patients and the staff,...

WASHINGTON — The White House vowed “no dust, no dollars” for Iran on Sunday — asserting that unless the Islamic Republic gives up its enriched uranium, it will get no sanctions relief — as President Trump tapped the brakes on forecasting a peace deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump revealed Saturday that the US and Iran were close on a memorandum of understanding that would get oil flowing again while allowing 30 days for nuclear negotiations. The plan unleashed panic among some Republicans and Israel backers — prompting Trump officials to clarify that no deal was imminent,...

The best hope for ending a poorly planned war, which started with scant consultation with Congress or the American people, may be an unsatisfactory peace that leaves critical issues to be resolved later and deepens Washington strife. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said a deal to halt the conflict he chose against Iran is imminent and very close. Each time, his predictions turned out to be wishful thinking or a misreading of Iran’s true intentions. So it’s no surprise his latest claims that a framework agreement with Tehran is near have been met with skepticism and confusion — nor that...

Saturday on “The Alex Marlow Show,” Dr. Sebastian Gorka talked about counter terrorism. Gorka said, “177 jihadis in one weekend, which makes it the biggest counter terrorism operation since September the 11th. 177 enemy killed in action.”