Free Republic

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the Trump administration’s frontman for waging war on Iran during weeks of kinetic operations aimed at decimating its nuclear threat. Since President Trump signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran to end the war, without securing significant concessions on its missile or nuclear stockpiles, Hegseth has said little about the shift in strategy — as Vice President Vance takes the spotlight in defending the tenuous diplomacy. The public positioning of the top Trump advisers reflects reporting on their private counsel to the commander in chief, with Trump saying in March that Hegseth was “the...

New supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei still absent from public view as his three brothers stand beside father’s coffin Beside the coffin of the assassinated former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei at a packed prayer hall in Tehran on Sunday there were calls for the killing of Donald Trump. Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions ⁠for Khamenei, who was killed along with other members of his family on the first day of the US and Israeli war on 28 February. The funeral was delayed because of the war. The funeral prayers for the former supreme leader and four...

An underground church pastor has been released from prison in China and has arrived in the United States, less than two months after President Donald Trump publicly raised his case with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Ezra Jin Mingri, who founded Beijing’s fast-growing Zion Church, was detained in October last year along with 17 other church leaders in what was one of China’s largest crackdowns on a single religious congregation in decades. The U.S.-based advocacy group ChinaAid, which monitors religious persecution in China, said Saturday that Jin had arrived in Los Angeles following his release. Jin’s detention drew international attention in...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s slain supreme leader, had seemed immovable for decades, a man whose authority had become so deeply woven into Iran’s political and religious life that imagining the country without him felt almost impossible. Now Tehran — the capital from which he ruled, where he was killed and which had shaped his life — is the center of his final journey, filled with mourners for funeral ceremonies taking place across several days, which are part farewell, part spectacle and part turning point. In the days leading up to the first public mourning, the city changed. First gradually, and...

On paper, the US constitution is a thing of beauty. But the would-be emperor in Washington has revealed its great weaknessAmerica’s big birthday has come at a bad time. On Saturday it will be a divided nation that marks 250 years since 13 North American colonies declared their independence from the Great Britain of George III. Many will be anxious that the republic they established that day is fragile – not least because of the would-be emperor in the White House.Some will console themselves that hope and angst have always been intertwined in the American story. From the very start,...

Lukashenko said Caracas can always count on Minsk, calling bilateral ties ideologically resilient, as Maduro remains detained in New York since January 3.MINSK – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko marked Venezuela’s Independence Day on Sunday by congratulating Acting President Delcy Rodriguez and making explicit what Minsk’s position is on Nicolas Maduro’s detention: it wants the Venezuelan president home as soon as possible.“We welcome the consistent efforts of the government headed by you to preserve peace, constitutional order and the earliest possible return to the homeland of President Nicolas Maduro Moros and his wife Cilia Flores,” the congratulatory message read, as quoted...

China’s leader draws from autocrats’ playbook to expand power, oust potential rivals and lay groundwork to rule indefinitely Chinese leader Xi Jinping is employing the sort of autocratic tactics once wielded by Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong to stamp out opposition and stack the leadership with acolytes as he prepares to extend his reign. In a throwback to the most powerful Communist leaders of the 20th century, Xi has purged dozens of senior officials—even his own protégés—overseen the growth of a cult of personality and demanded absolute loyalty. His goal: dictate China’s destiny for years to come in order to...

RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Johannesburg, South Africa - 30 June 2026 1. Various of crowd at protest 2. Wide of protesters and police vehicles during protest 3. Various of protesters marching

Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel launched a series of controversial criticisms and predictions about AI and Western democracy during remarks at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on Tuesday. In his most provocative statement, Thiel accused Pope Leo XIV of serving the interests of China with his stance on AI.CNN reports that Thiel, co-founder of Palantir and PayPal and an early Silicon Valley supporter of President Donald Trump, accused Pope Leo of inadvertently functioning as a Chinese communist agent by advocating for AI regulation. He also warned of what he described as an impending democratic-socialist takeover of the United States...

The wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did something "bizarre" three days after he was hospitalized for a possible heart attack, according to a new report. Elaine Chao, Transportation secretary during Trump's first administration and McConnell's wife since 1993, left the country, the Daily Beast reported Saturday. Chao flew to Beijing to discuss China-U.S. relations with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on June 17, according to the Daily Beast and Chinese media. This was three days after McConnell, 84, was reportedly found "unconscious" and rushed from his home in Washington to the hospital, reports show. Want more breaking political news?...

Collector Xiao Neng says he has spent at least US$1 million (S$1.3 million) on Ralph Lauren clothing over the past four to five years, building a wardrobe so large that he now sells pieces of it in two vintage stores that he opened in downtown Shanghai. The 23-year-old is part of a growing group of Chinese superfans helping fuel a resurgence for the American brand, which reported a 50 per cent sales jump in the country last quarter, even as the broader luxury market remains subdued by weak consumer confidence, a prolonged property downturn and concerns about jobs and income...

The walls of Jerusalem's Old City and the Chords Bridge were illuminated in red, white and blue Saturday night as the city celebrated the 250th anniversary of American independence and honored the enduring US-Israel partnership. Video of display. Jerusalem marked the 250th anniversary of American independence on Saturday night by illuminating the walls of the Old City and the city's iconic Chords Bridge in the red, white and blue colors of the U.S. flag. The tribute, organized by the Jerusalem Municipality, was intended as a symbol of friendship and appreciation for the longstanding relationship between Israel and the United States,...

Iranian security officials have rejected Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s request to attend the burial of his slain father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, because they fear Israel will kill the son or track him back to his hiding spot, The New York Times reported Saturday. Mojtaba Khamenei seeks to attend his father’s July 9 burial in Mashhad and perform funeral rites, but has so far been refused, the Times said, citing two unnamed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members and a person involved with planning the multi-day funeral that began on Saturday. Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was...

Highly ill-advised' card comes amid tension over military procurementAmid the ongoing review of Canada's fighter jet procurement, a federal public servant has been rebuked for distributing a custom-made business card featuring two Lockheed Martin F-35s at a recent military trade show. According to federal guidelines, all government business cards must follow a standardized template, with a Canadian flag as the sole illustration. The card used by Crista-lynn Ferguson at the Ottawa conference included more than her email, phone numbers and title as director general of fighter capability at the Department of National Defence (DND). Its front featured a metallic logo...

Russia has begun using a new autonomous version of its Molniya strike drone in Ukraine, adapting the cheap fixed-wing attack UAV to hit targets without the control antenna that made earlier models vulnerable to electronic warfare, Defence Blog reported, citing an advisor to the Ukrainian Defense Minister Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov on July 3. The new variant was identified after a Russian Molniya struck a Ukrainian facility and was later found without the usual antenna used for operator control. Ukrainian radio technology specialist Beskrestnov said the drone carried only a camera and an onboard computer, suggesting a different strike profile. Instead...

The Iranian regime’s oligarchic clans are at war with each other – and this conflict may soon spiral beyond control. This fight is not over ideology or the future direction of the Islamic Republic: all the oligarchic clans are Islamist; some wear turbans, others wear military uniforms, and some wear suits. In other words, they all subscribe to the core tenets of Shia Islamism in Iran: the forceful imposition of Sharia law domestically, support for the so-called Axis of Resistance militia network, anti-Americanism, and the goal of eradicating the Israel (driven by innate anti-Semitism). But they are competing to protect...

Mourners thronged a vast prayer complex in Tehran on Saturday as the week-long funeral ceremonies of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began with the national anthem, religious eulogies and readings from the Koran. Iran is staging mass funeral processions for Khamenei – whose 37-year reign was brought to an end in February by the first airstrike of the war launched by the US and Israel – in a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic's theocratic state and revolutionary zeal. Television footage showed his coffin draped with the Iranian flag and topped with his black turban. It was...

Elon Musk on Friday slammed New York City’s Communist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, following his disgusting Independence Day address on Friday morning. As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier, Mamdani gave an address on Friday morning, preceding President Trump’s address to the nation from Mount Rushmore, during which the immigrant mayor surrounded himself with foreigners and lectured Americans on how bad our country is. America, he said, “is an arena of supremacy where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal.” “How small they are, how weak, how unoriginal,” he said of American citizens who value our...

SummaryKhamenei will be buried on Thursday in Mashhad, near Imam Reza's tomb Ceremonies are scheduled in Qom on Tuesday and Iraq's Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday Iraqi, Armenian and Pakistani officials arrived in Tehran for the funeral DUBAI, July 3 (Reuters) - The body of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lay in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign ​dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects to Iran's late Supreme Leader, slain by U.S. and Israeli bombs.Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei, whose 37-year reign was brought to ‌an end in...

The one thing we can always trust about Iran is that we can't trust Iran. Any agreement they make, they won't keep. Any promise they make, they will break. Any time they claim they are telling the truth, they are lying. These are constants.So, when satellite photos reveal some new and suspicious construction deep in the rugged Zagros Mountains, it raises some questions.One of the leading American institutes devoted to research on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program sounded the alarm this week over the regime's uninspected underground site in the Zagros Mountains. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)...