Free Republic

Luxembourg just wrote abortion into its constitution. On March 3, Luxembourg’s Chamber of Deputies voted to add the “freedom” to have an abortion to the country’s highest law. The initiative began when MP Marc Baum of déi Lénk introduced the proposal in 2024, then pushed it through the legislative pipeline in 2025, including review by the State Council. Along the way, lawmakers contorted themselves into knots and deliberately shifted the text from a claimed “right” to a “freedom,” a rhetorical dodge that changes the label while keeping the same moral claim: the state should publicly bless the deliberate destruction of...

Mark Carney has backtracked on his support for the US military campaign against Iran.In an initial statement on Sunday, the Canadian prime minister expressed “support” for the attacks and said they were necessary to “prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon”.But speaking in Sydney on Wednesday, he told reporters that the strikes appeared “to be inconsistent with international law”.Mr Carney joined a chorus of world leaders speaking out against the joint US-Israeli operation, which entered its fifth day on Wednesday.Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said on Tuesday that while Iran bore responsibility for the war, the attacks by the US...

Kuwaiti aircraft are suspected to be responsible for the shootdown of three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles on March 2, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The friendly fire episode occurred around 7 a.m. local time on the third day of the U.S. war against Iran. At least one Kuwaiti F/A-18 is believed to be responsible—Kuwait flies F/A-18s and Eurofighter Typhoons. All six aviators—three pilots and three weapons systems officers—are alive, were recovered safely, and are in stable condition, U.S. military officials said. U.S. Central Command declined comment on the suspected role of the...

"It's obviously a huge geopolitical even with huge geopolitical implications..."

Cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan continued on Tuesday, with intermittent fighting reported along the frontier as Pakistani forces expanded aerial and ground operations under Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said 464 Afghan Taliban personnel had been killed, over 665 injured, and 188 checkposts destroyed as of late afternoon, with multiple military installations targeted across Afghanistan. Amid escalating violence, including strikes on Bagram and Khugyani bases and border skirmishes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, the United Nations urged both sides to halt hostilities and warned of the growing risk to civilians and worsening humanitarian conditions in the border...

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said this week that Doha has “no information” about alleged Israeli intelligence cells operating in the country, after US media personality Tucker Carlson asserted that Qatari and Saudi authorities had arrested “Mossad agents” (Israel’s foreign intelligence agency) planning bombings in both countries. Carlson made the allegation in a widely shared segment posted by the Tucker Carlson Network under the title “BREAKING: Mossad Agents Arrested in Planned Bombing Operation,” describing the purported arrests as an unreported “fact.”

US political commentator and journalist Tucker Carlson claimed on Monday that Saudi Arabia and Qatar had caught and “arrested Israeli Mossad agents planning bombings in those countries”. “Why would the Israelis be committing bombings in Gulf countries, which are also being attacked by Iran?” Carlson said on his show. “Aren’t they on the same side?” “Israel wants to hurt Iran - and Qatar, and the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, and Oman and Kuwait,” he added. Carlson also alleged that Israel deliberately sows chaos among America’s Arab allies. The American journalist did not cite a source for the claim,...

CAIRO (AP) — A Russian-flagged tanker carrying liquefied natural gas exploded and erupted in flames before sinking in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, authorities in the North African country said Wednesday. No casualties were reported.The tanker was under Western sanctions, suspected to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet of energy tankers trying to bypass sanctions imposed on Moscow over its war in Ukraine. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. According to the Libyan Maritime Authority, there was a “sudden explosions, followed by a massive fire” on the Arctic Metagaz on Tuesday while the LNG...

A three-day state funeral for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has been 'postponed' hours before it was due to begin, Iranian state media reports. The ceremony was supposed to unfold this evening at the grand mosque in Tehran but, with Israeli and American strikes continuing to pound the city, will now be rearranged. Organisers claimed it was delayed 'in anticipation of unprecedented turnout', and reportedly want to wait until the necessary infrastructure is in place. Iranian TV reported: 'The farewell ceremony for the martyred Imam has been postponed. The new date will be announced later.' Hojjatoleslam Mahmoudi, head of Iran’s...

Israel has eliminated Rahman Makadam, head of the IRGC Special Operations Department, who was behind the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump. Israel has eliminated Rahman Makadam, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Special Operations Department, according to a report by Channel 12. Makadam was reportedly responsible for the assassination attempt on Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The report added that Trump was informed in recent hours by Israeli officials of Makadam’s killing.

The MEK Is Not Pro-Western or Committee to Democracy; It Operates as a Cult and Fosters Anti-Americanism When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power, he denied having any interest in personal power. Rather, he described himself as a figurehead for a coalition of Islamist and leftist groups opposed to the Iranian monarchy. “Personal desire, age, and my health do not allow me to personally have a role in running the country after the fall of the current system,” he told The Associated Press on November 7, 1978. He lied. As soon as Khomeini returned to Iran, he set upon purging his...

The Iranian-backed group Hezbollah has fired rockets from Lebanon into Israel for a second day while the Israeli military has sent troops into the south of the country, as Lebanon is dragged into the war between US, Israel and Iran. Israel has also carried out air strikes that have killed dozens of people, according to Lebanese health officials. On Monday, after the regional conflict spread to Lebanon, thousands of residents fled villages in the south and, in Beirut, displaced families gathered in the city's Martyrs' Square and on the promenade along the Mediterranean.

A submarine attack on an Iranian ship off the coast of Sri Lanka has left at least 101 people missing, one dead and 78 injured, sources in Sri Lanka's navy and defence ministry told Reuters on Wednesday. It was unclear who attacked the ship, which the sources said has now sunk.

France's president has joined Spain in condemning US and Israeli strikes on Iran, branding them illegal. In a televised address on Tuesday evening, Emmanuel Macron declared the attacks were 'outside the bounds of international law'. He is the second Western leader to question the legality of the conflict after Spain's Pedro Sanchez warned that strikes from the US and Israel risked bringing about a 'more uncertain and hostile international order'.

Keir Starmer has defied brutal rebukes from Donald Trump insisting the UK is 'not involved' with Iran strikes. The PM made his latest attempt to wash his hands of the US president's military campaign in a speech to Muslims breaking Ramadan fast last night. Sir Keir - who has been desperately trying to shore up Labour's left flank since the Greens inflicted an humiliating by-election defeat - also talked up his determination to get 'justice' for Gaza.

The port of Novorossiysk was struck on the night of March 2 by drones of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Defense Forces — military ships, air defense systems, and oil infrastructure were hit, sources told Ukrainska Pravda. Source: interlocutors of Ukrainska Pravda in the Security Service of Ukraine. Direct quote from a UP source: “The season of spring ‘bavovna’ has begun… Drones of the Special Operations Center ‘Alpha’ of the SSU, together with other components of the Defense Forces (the State Border Guard Service, Defense Intelligence, the Unmanned Systems Forces and Special Operations Forces), staged a bright ‘bavovna’...

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Iran’s military capabilities were being steadily degraded, adding that he is open to working with some Iranian officials who have survived the first few days of Operation Epic Fury. Trump noted that Iran could “keep lobbing missiles for a while.” For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. The US president said, “They’re running out, and they’re running out of areas to shoot them, because they’re being decimated,” Trump said. Speaking during a phone interview with POLITICO, he said Iran was “running out of launchers.” As...

Saudi Arabia’s said on Sunday that it condemned and denounced in the “strongest terms the blatant Iranian aggression” on Oman, adding that it was a “flagrant violation” to Oman’s sovereignty. “The Kingdom further affirms its readiness to place all its capabilities at Oman’s disposal in support of any measures it may undertake,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement on X. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app. Saudi Arabia warned of “the serious consequences of Iran’s continued violations of states’ sovereignty” in a manner that undermines the region’s stability and...

WASHINGTON -- The United States and Ecuador conducted joint military operations against "designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador," U.S. Southern Command announced on Tuesday. This marks the first time that the U.S. military has engaged in a land operation against South American drug cartels. Until now, the U.S. military had only carried out airstrikes targeting smuggling boats in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry said Iran's attacks have crossed "every red line" and condemned the strikes which targeted civilian areas and facilities. Iran did not just target military facilities but all of Qatari territory including Doha airport and gas facilities, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry told reporters on Tuesday. Qatar also shot down two Iranian fighters jets who entered its airspace on Monday. "Red lines have already been crossed," Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, told reporters. "The attack on our sovereignty, the blatant attack on our people, on the security and safety of our nation has already crossed every...