Free Republic

After its unmanned vessels recently drew attention in the Iran war, Saronic Technologies, a shipbuilding start-up, announced on Thursday that it would open a new facility in the United States to make both naval and commercial ships. Saronic’s chief executive, Dino Mavrookas, said the company would break ground this year on an 850-acre shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, and begin building vessels there by 2028. Last month, the U.S. military used a Saronic drone boat to rescue the two-person crew of a downed Apache attack helicopter off the coast of Oman. This week, three of its vessels were used to attack...

Washington moves to deprive Tehran of much needed revenue, raising pressure on a suffering population DUBAI—President Trump is betting that reimposing the blockade on Iran and revoking its right to sell oil will throttle the regime’s economy and convince it to release its hold on the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran is betting it can hold out. The danger is, in the short term at least, that the renewed economic pressure hurts ordinary Iranians and leaves a destructive stalemate in the waterway. U.S. Central Command announced strikes on Iranian targets for a sixth straight day on Thursday. The collapse of the...

Iranian strikes on Friday hit a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait, damaging one of the key sources of drinking water in the small desert nation. It’s the latest attack on essential infrastructure across the Middle East that have exposed extreme vulnerabilities in one of the world’s driest regions, which relies almost exclusively on technology to produce freshwater that sustains cities, hotels, industry and some agriculture. In Kuwait, about 90% of drinking water comes from desalination, along with roughly 86% in Oman and about 70% in Saudi Arabia. The process removes salt from seawater, most commonly by pushing it...

Direct YouTube Link: Secretary Rubio delivers opening remarks at the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political TerrorismA whole industry grew up in our countries around the study of extremism. We have think tanks and fellowships and journals and consultancies, with the unspoken understanding among them that the only kind of political violence that was a true threat to our system – I’m sorry – that only one kind of political violence was a true threat to the system. A bomb planted by a neo-Nazi group was a nefarious and murderous act of evil. It is. But a bomb planted by...

The combination of anti-Semitism and violence on the left deamands attention. It is a toxic brew. Democrat Washington Rep. Adam Smith provides a recent example in connection with his vote against aid to Israel this week. Matthew Shea reports at Jewish Insider (links in original): Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, indicated he voted to cut off military aid to Israel in part because of sustained personal threats against his family and his staff, part of what he described as a violent and relentless campaign of intimidation by far-left anti-Israel activists. Smith voted...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday announced the imposition of visa restrictions in a bid to target violent, far-left terrorist groups. The announcement coincided with an international summit in which Rubio met with representatives of dozens of nations and warned of growing far-left extremism. He further invoked international coalitions to stop the Islamic State as a model for them to emulate. "Today, in support of National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 and ongoing U.S. Government efforts to disrupt networks fomenting political violence before they escalate to criminal action, the Department of State is announcing a new visa restriction policy that targets...

The average life expectancy for a Russian soldier entering battle in Ukraine is 20 to 30 minutes, Central Intelligence Agency director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday. Ratcliffe was speaking at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, where he attributed the deadly conditions to Ukraine's combat drones equipped with AI. "What I would say is, our intelligence is consistent with some of the open-source reporting you may have seen in Ukraine," Ratcliffe said. "So the average life expectancy of a Russian recruit, right now, arriving on the battlefield in Ukraine, is estimated to be between 20 and 30 minutes." "And that's...

While driving in the central Israeli city of Rosh Ha’ayin in late June, eight months after being freed from captivity in the Gaza Strip, former hostage Rom Braslavski received a phone call from a military officer. “We wanted to update you that Abu Yousef, Talal Abd al-Aal, was eliminated,” the officer said to Braslavski, referring to a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander who held and abused him during his two years in captivity by the terror group. “You can’t be serious,” Braslavski replied. “I’m very serious. You have no idea how happy I am, how excited I am, for you,” the...

For years Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure, including electronic voting machines and ballot-counting systems. We are releasing a series of previously-classified U.S. Intelligence Community Assessments and other reports proving that our government has long known these machines are extremely exposed to attack. As one assessment states: “We judge that U.S. adversaries, including at a minimum Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as non-state groups, have the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure.” The documents also state: “We assess that centralized election-related data repositories, such as voter registration databases, pollbooks, and official...

A Clinton-appointed federal judge in Florida has died just days after he controversially released a Cuban plane hijacker who was awaiting deportation. Judge John E. Steele, 77, passed away, according to a law clerk for Chief Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the Middle District of Florida — where Steele served. A legal source in Miami also confirmed Steele’s sudden death. The circumstances of his passing were not immediately clear. Steele came under criticism for his July 8 ruling to release Cuban plane hijacker Maikel Guerra Morales from ICE custody.

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...

JD Vance has claimed he is the target of an Israeli-funded propaganda campaign over his Iran peace push, and that Jeffrey Epstein had ties to the 'highest levels' of Mossad.The vice president made the explosive allegations during a nearly three-hour sit-down with podcaster Joe Rogan. Vance pointed to a Time magazine report he said proved American influencers were being paid to attack the Iran deal. The report notes that money has flowed through a former Trump campaign operative and is bankrolled by elements of the Israeli government.‘My response to that is, well, go to hell,' Vance said of those taking...

(July 16, 2026 / JNS) The Knesset opened the plenum session on Wednesday with a minute of silence to commemorate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who passed away on July 11 following a sudden illness. “In honor of one of the greatest friends the State of Israel has ever had, members of the Knesset from both sides of the aisle will now rise for a moment of silence to pay our respects to the legendary Sen. Lindsey Graham, may his memory be a blessing,” said Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana in the opening remarks of the session.

I have very bad news for everyone who opposes killing people. France’s National Assembly passed their euthanasia bill by a vote of 291 to 241 on Wednesday, July 15. We reported on June 30 that France’s National Assembly voted to pass the euthanasia bill by a vote of 295 to 232. France’s Senate has defeated the euthanasia bill three times after the previous votes. This final vote will not go to the Senate for a vote as the National Assembly can pass legislation into law even when they are not able to reach agreement with the Senate. The issue might...

President Donald Trump thanked Iran for a 'gesture of Goodwill' after an American woman who was 'wrongly detained' in 2024 was released from the country – while also taking a shot at the former President Biden. Trump showed gratitude for the gesture in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, adding that the woman was now outside the country and in 'good condition'. 'Iran has allowed an American Citizen, who was wrongfully detained in December of 2024 under the "presidency" of Sleepy Joe Biden, to leave the Country,' wrote the president. 'She is now safely outside of Iran, and in...

Vice President JD Vance asserted in a bombshell interview with Joe Rogan that some in the Israeli government want to derail US negotiations with Iran to keep the war going “indefinitely” — and he acknowledged the Trump administration “screwed up” the release of the Epstein files. “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt there have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to shift us away from [negotiations] because they want to continue the military campaign,” Vance told the popular podcaster during an episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” released Wednesday. “There are some people within their...

The world that we’re looking at today is radically different than that of just five years ago, radically different in the sense that it is much more in the interest of the United States. And I know that seems controversial because [President Donald] Trump is written off as someone who is too fluid and volatile... It’s more important to see what he’s done. Let’s go through the world abroad as it is today systematically. Look at Latin America. Five years ago, the Chinese were controlling, through their surrogate companies, the entry and exit to Panama. Russia and China were the...

On July 8, 2026,Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave presents to the other leaders of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member nations. The gifts were given at the meeting in Turkey. The present appears to be a rare Gümüsay .357 revolver, which was made by the Turkish company MKE about 30 years ago. Giving presents to NATO leaders is not unusual. Giving firearms to leaders of other countries was not unusual before WWI. Over a hundred years of demonization of civilian ownership of firearms has made it unusual. The revolver came in a presentation box which seems to have a...

A 61-year-old man was partially pulled through a cabin window after it dislodged on a Ryanair Boeing 737 shortly after take-off from the Greek city of Thessaloniki. His wife and nearby passengers managed to pull him back inside as the plane descended. Svetlana Maksimovic says her husband's face has been "completely disfigured" and that he is struggling to recover in hospital Svetlana Maksimovic and her husband, Ljubisa Karovic, had just settled into a Ryanair flight last week when they heard a deafening bang. Seconds later Ms Maksimovic turned to see her 61-year-old husband being sucked through a dislodged cabin window....

Riyadh strikes Yemeni airport (Sana’a) after Trump backs military action against Houthis The strike on Monday (13 July) damaged the runway and prevented an Iranian airliner from landing in the Yemeni capital, which is controlled by the Houthis, a pro-Tehran proxy militia... ...Two US officials told Axios that Donald Trump gave Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia his support for the military action... ...The incident breaks a four-year truce between Riyadh and the Shia militia, which followed a decade-long war that killed approximately 377,000 people, according to United Nations estimates, most of which were caused by starvation and...