Free Republic

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Iran will be bombed “at a much higher level” if it doesn’t agree to a peace deal, raising tensions even as news outlets reported that Washington and Tehran are nearing an agreement to end the war. Trump in a Truth Social post said the U.S. military offensive known as Operation Epic Fury “will be at an end” if Iran “agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption.” ... But “if they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity...

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) announces she has been working with foreign countries to supply oil to Cuba, in defiance of President Trump. She says Trump's economic sanctions against the Communist regime are equivalent to illegally bombing the nation's infrastructure. VIDEO AT LINK...............

Rising optimism surrounding a potential diplomatic breakthrough between the United States and Iran placed renewed focus on the Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday, as traders monitored signs of easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Reports indicate Washington and Tehran are nearing a one-page memorandum of understanding aimed at de-escalating the conflict between the two nations. The development sparked a shift in market expectations regarding global shipping activity through the strategically critical waterway, which handles a significant share of the world’s oil flows. On prediction platform Kalshi, traders increased the probability that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz will normalize...

Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites across the Middle East since the war began, hitting hangars, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft and key radar, communications and air defense equipment, according to a Washington Post analysis of satellite imagery. The amount of destruction is far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government or previously reported. The threat of air attacks rendered some of the U.S. bases in the region too dangerous to staff at normal levels, and commanders moved most of the personnel from these sites...

Donald Trump is on the verge of securing a sweeping peace deal with Iran that would lift US sanctions, free billions in frozen assets and open a path to uranium enrichment, mirroring the Barack Obama pact he spent years trashing. If signed, a 30-day window would open for both countries to negotiate a larger agreement covering the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of all US sanctions on Iran, and new limits on its nuclear program. The deal calls for Iran to halt all uranium enrichment for 12 to 15 years with automatic extensions if Tehran violates the...

The United States and Iran are closing in on a one-page memo to end their war, a Pakistani source involved in the peace efforts told Reuters on Wednesday, confirming an Axios report citing two US officials."We will close this very soon. We are getting close," the source said, with Pakistan's Foreign Minister adding that the country is working to ensure the agreement would lead to a "permanent end" to the conflict.According to Axios, the US expects a response from Iran within 48 hours regarding the key points of a one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson told...

Donald Trump is on the verge of securing a sweeping peace deal with Iran that would lift US sanctions, free billions in frozen assets and open a path to uranium enrichment, mirroring the Barack Obama pact he spent years trashing. A one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding is being negotiated between senior Iranian officials and Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The White House believes the memo could finalize a framework to end the war within 48 hours. If signed, a 30-day window would open for both countries to negotiate a larger agreement covering the reopening of the Strait of...

WASHINGTON — The US and Iran are nearing agreement on a memorandum of understanding to end their nine-and-a-half-week war and lay out plans for talks about the future of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, a Pakistani source familiar with mediation efforts told The Post Wednesday.“There are documents,” the source said, referring to multiple versions of the potential agreement. “Which one will be approved is under discussion.”Separately, Reuters quoted a Pakistani source as saying of a potential deal: “We will close this very soon. We are getting close.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday evening he was pausing the U.S. effort to guide stranded vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz to allow time for a deal to end the Iran war, but that the American forces’ blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place. Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Beijing on Wednesday morning, the official Xinhua news agency reported, without providing further details. It was the first time since the start of the war that Araghchi has traveled to China, whose close economic and political ties to Tehran...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would briefly pause an operation to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing progress toward a comprehensive agreement with Iran."We have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will ‌remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom ... will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump wrote on social media.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is pausing “Project Freedom,” the U.S. military’s effort to guide commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz, one day after the operation began. Trump, in a Truth Social post, said the decision was based in part on “the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement” with Iran. Stock futures rose following Trump’s announcement, which raised hopes for a peace agreement that would end the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and reopen the economically vital strait. It also represented a surprising about-face from the Trump administration, which just hours...

The suspected hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which has killed three people and sickened at least seven others, has two likely causes — and both are bad news for the 150 passengers on board, experts said. The more likely scenario would be passengers contracting the virus from the feces, urine or saliva of infected rats or mice. That’s the usual transmission vector, according to physician Zaid Fadul, a former Air Force flight surgeon — although the World Health Organization insisted Tuesday that no rodents have been found on the stranded liner. But there’s one strain of the...

We have an update on the missing U.S. soldiers in Morocco. As WLT Report previously reported, two U.S. service members went missing during African Lion 2026, the annual training operation led by the U.S. Africa Command. Now, new details have emerged regarding how the soldiers went missing. According to an exclusive report by CBS News, one of the soldiers, while on a hike, fell into the ocean and, in an effort to save the soldier who fell, another soldier jumped into the ocean to rescue him, but was also swept away. CBS News provided exclusive details on how the soldiers...

The ​U.S. Treasury ‌Department is ​sanctioning ​multiple wallets ⁠tied ​to ​Iran, thereby freezing $344 ​million ​in cryptocurrency, Treasury ‌Secretary ⁠Scott Bessent ​said ​in ⁠a statement ​on ​X.....

The Iran war didn’t just break Tehran—it shattered old alliances, exposed Europe’s weakness, checked China and Russia, and accelerated an American-led geopolitical realignment. No one ever quite knows the nature of the aftermath of any war in the Middle East. The current effort to disarm and neuter the Iranian theocracy is no exception. But contrary to European and American left-wing consensus, the ripples of the Iran war are already remaking the postwar world as we knew it—and in ways that are all bad. For more than half a century, OPEC has terrorized the industrial world with threats of oil shortages...

The Trump administration attacked a judge for releasing an accused murderer, but it withheld existence of the foreign warrant. A federal judge said Monday that the Trump administration had put her security at risk by posting a “patently false” allegation that she knowingly released an ICE detainee with an international warrant for murder. Justice Department attorney Kevin Bolan profusely apologized to Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose for the press release posted last week by the Department of Homeland Security, which Bolan acknowledged “simply was not true.” Bolan said that he didn’t tell the judge about the foreign arrest...

The only question is, 'Is it in time?'The warning bells were clanging like crazy back in 2024 when immigrant numbers had reached 20% of the general population, and the gentle rhythms of Scandinavian life seemed to be slipping rapidly away forever. ...After staying out of World War II, Sweden had evolved into a high-performing export-oriented economy, based on a stable parliamentary democracy and social consensus. The country had top-notch health care and education. It enjoyed social and gender equality, had low crime rates and little ethnic conflict. While grounds remain for optimism about some of these indicators, especially in the...

Venezuela’s deposed president, Nicolás Maduro, never enjoyed the charisma or genuine popularity of his predecessor, ‘El Comandante’ Hugo Chávez. So all the murals, billboards and installations dotted around Caracas urging the release of the 63-year-old statesman – along with his wife Cilia Flores – from American captivity, don’t exactly feel like a grassroots effort. ‘Bring them home!’ reads one mural, evoking the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas. Meanwhile, a stopwatch installed in Caracas’s Bolivar Square counts how long it has been since the presidential couple were abducted by the US army in early January. Maduro currently resides in the Metropolitan...

You know how gas prices are already skyrocketing? Well... Fire reported at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone in the UAE following an Iranian drone strike. pic.twitter.com/Kps0lfvJRF— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 4, 2026Fujairah is the only UAE refinery that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway between the Arabian Gulf and Iran that is currently locked down by Iranian mines/rockets and the U.S. Navy. The region produces a third of the world's oil, and a crucial percentage (hundreds of millions of barrels daily) are bypassing the strait by using the Fujairah refinery. Or ... they were (no word yet on how this...

The European Commission has drafted plans to give more free emissions permits to industries ​over the next few years, a move that ‌could save companies 4 billion euros ($4.68 billion) in CO2 costs, an internal EU document seen by Reuters showed on Monday. The EU's ​carbon market is the bloc's main tool for ​addressing CO2 emissions, which it does by forcing ⁠industries to buy CO2 emissions permits when they pollute. The ​scheme has come under growing political pressure from member states ​worried about Europe's faltering economic competitiveness, while some heavy industries have urged Brussels to give them more free CO2...