Free Republic

The U.S. and Saudi militaries launched airstrikes late Tuesday on Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, U.S. Central Command said, after Iran and its proxies allegedly targeted American forces over the last few days. The strikes could pose a challenge to a five-day lull in U.S. attacks on Iran, as President Trump says he wants to give diplomacy a chance. It's unclear when — or whether — strikes on Iran could resume. The U.S. also said Tuesday it prevented an Iranian "surprise attack." The U.S.-Saudi operation was aimed at "terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq," CENTCOM said in a statement...

The U.S. and Saudi militaries launched airstrikes late Tuesday on Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, U.S. Central Command said, after Iran and its proxies allegedly targeted American forces over the last few days. The strikes could pose a challenge to a five-day lull in U.S. attacks on Iran, as President Trump says he wants to give diplomacy a chance. It's unclear when — or whether — strikes on Iran could resume. The U.S. also said Tuesday it prevented an Iranian "surprise attack." CENTCOM said the strikes were in response to more than 30 attempted drone attacks on U.S. forces and Saudi...

The Trump administration rule, which took effect immediately, could transfer nearly 450,000 cases to immigration judges, who could dismiss the asylum petitions. The Trump administration launched a plan Tuesday to channel hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers directly into deportation proceedings, a change that some attorneys said could lead to people being removed from the United States without a hearing.Trump officials introduced a rule designed to reduce the 1.4 million asylum cases pending in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Department of Homeland Security agency that processes immigration applications, by nearly a third. The rule took effect immediately, before...

Ukrainian and US Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump discussed the production of Patriot air defense systems during their meeting and also revived the negotiation track, according to an informed source. "The meeting was very positive, no less than 8 out of 10. The highest priority was securing licenses for Patriot production; other areas are also being worked on. We managed to revive the negotiation track," the source said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says he was reassured in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha that Ukraine’s attack on an Iranian ship “was unintentional and Ukraine seeks no escalation”. In a post on X, Araghchi wrote that “Iran does not seek escalation either, but made clear any attack on our citizens or interests is unacceptable”. “There must be restitution for losses,” he said. Sybiha earlier described the call as “frank” and “direct”.

The US military says it intercepted multiple missiles launched by Iran, marking the first reported Iranian attack on an American target since President Donald Trump declared over the weekend that he would halt strikes following two weeks of fighting. “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack on US forces based in the Middle East,” Central Command (CENTCOM) writes on X, adding that “all Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted.”

Federal agents are arresting spouses of Americans, tech workers and others whose visas have expired, including many who have active applications to stay in the country. The Trump administration has begun arresting foreign citizens with expired U.S. visas as they travel through airports, including spouses of Americans, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with immigration lawyers — a tactic that opens up a vast new pool of people for deportation. Immigration agents in plain clothes have whisked away targets at check-in counters and arrival gates, with enforcement actions in at least 15 airports in recent...

Iran is a theology. It is no longer a country. Not in the way diplomats mean the word. Not in the bureaucratic sense that produces signatures, ministries, chains of command, and solemn communiques printed on heavy paper before disappearing into filing cabinets. What remains of Iran is something stranger: a prayer house where the faithful still answer a call no one can command. MAGA still behaves as though there’s a political switchboard secreted in Tehran, even after six destructive months of war. They imagine some paneled room where a weary official picks up the telephone, listens gravely, and relays instructions...

The US delegation walked out of a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, in protest at comments made by France that compared Washington's voting on human rights to that of authoritarian states. The diplomatic row was initially sparked last week, when the US joined North Korea and Russia in voting against extending Volker Turk's term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. After the vote on Friday, France's UN mission criticised the US and compared it to North Korea and Russia. "The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore," it posted on X. In response, US...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his last in-person meeting at the White House, reportedly sold President Donald Trump on starting a war with Iran. Now, the GOP's America First wing fears he's about to pitch the president on ramping up attacks."I think all of President Trump's most ardent non-'Israel First' supporters are furious," said former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. "Netanyahu has had twice as many visits to the White House in 18 months as Churchill had in all of World War II — with every one of them a disaster for America First."The two men are set...

Here's the UK's best example of a woman who empowers

Top US lawmakers want the Trump administration to launch a formal national security probe into Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT on suspicions that Beijing orchestrated the company’s blockbuster IPO to prop up a key military asset, The Post has learned. Shares for the China-based chipmaker, also known as ChangXin Memory Technologies, skyrocketed 466% in Shanghai trading on Monday — raising $8.6 billion and instantly making the firm the most valuable on a China mainland exchange with a market capitalization of nearly $500 billion. Beijing’s historic windfall — which sent shares of US chipmakers tumbling on competition fears on Monday — is...

President Trump publicly rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday after The Post reported that the leader of the Jewish state is expected to present Trump with evidence that Iran is pursuing nuclear technology at its subterranean Pickaxe Mountain site.“Well, I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” when asked about the expectation Netanyahu will bring up Pickaxe Mountain ahead of an Oval Office meeting. “We know exactly what’s going on. But no, I heard Bibi announce that. I said, ‘Why don’t you...

"The very concept of the success is deeply immoral. If you are successful the other is loser. We shouldn’t accept it. We should prosper or suffer together. Otherwise it is satanic. - Aleksandr Dugin, X/Twitter, July 10 2026"

The Pentagon first outlined the goal of putting the United States industrial base on a “wartime footing”— the condition of being prepared to deter and, if necessary, prevail in a protracted conflict—in November 2025. What steps have government and industry taken since then to make this ambition a reality?.... Yet industrial plans are not the same as results, and isolated bursts of investment are not the same as institutionalized industrial power. The time scales needed to deliver several critical munitions, for example, depleted after the war in Iran, continue to stretch more than three years. Though investment announcements have risen...

Cubans across the island nation banged pots and pans in a mass protest event against the regime on Friday and Saturday nights, demanding an end to the communist regime as the nation’s elites prepared to celebrate the anniversary of Fidel Castro’s first large-scale terrorist attack. July 26 marks the anniversary of the 1953 attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba by a terrorist cell organized by Fidel Castro, at the time an unpopular law student attempting to elevate his political profile. The attack killed 54 people and was, at the time, a massive failure for Castro’s movement,...

Foreign interference seen as the second most concerning threat behind major terror attacksIran and Turkey are working to influence the upcoming Israeli elections, several Israeli officials warned on Monday as the country is gearing up for a controversial election season.The most dramatic warning reportedly came from David Zini, director of the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, which is responsible for counterintelligence and safeguarding the elections.According to Channel 13 News, Zini said in a meeting with top officials that the Iranian regime and other countries are looking to interfere with the election process. Sources present in the meeting told the channel...

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea should be considered an assault on Iran itself and showed how important it was to eliminate what it said was the threat from Kyiv. Iran's Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the Ukrainian attack, saying it resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had struck vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday accused Ukraine of widening the geographical scope of what he called "terrorist attacks."

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to meet in Washington today before the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham. The Republican senator was a staunch supporter of Ukraine, and his final act as a public official was to visit Kyiv and secure an agreement on a new Russian sanctions package. Trump will welcome Zelenskyy to the White House later before the funeral at Washington National Cathedral. It'll mark the second sit-down between the two leaders this month. The Ukrainian president will then move on to the Capitol for a meeting with senators, a source told the Reuters news agency. Posting...

No primary—especially a Senate primary—should go on this long. But Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, having dragged on for months, has turned into an interminably vicious grudge fest—one that’s not likely to subside until voters finally go to the polls on August 4 and choose between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed.But the Michigan primary is also so bitter for the same reason that it has been so interesting. Of all of the 2026 races, this is the one that best captures the current fissures in the Democratic Party—and which seems to best predict where the fault lines of the 2028 presidential...