Free Republic

The reports are everywhere — miserable conditions supposedly aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, including food shortages, broken plumbing, widespread exhaustion, and plummeting morale. It’s so bad, these reports say, that some sailors have attempted to jump overboard and presumably drown. Breathless headlines like “Conditions on US aircraft carrier at sea for more than 250 days raise alarms” are rampant. Democrat lawmakers like Richard "Da Nang Dick" Blumenthal (D-CT) are demanding answers and writing strongly worded letters. The U.S. military was already preparing to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln with the USS George Washington as part of a scheduled Middle East...

Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, said: “Calling Israel’s defensive war against Hamas a ‘genocide’ is not activism; it is a modern blood libel dressed up in academic language.” By Marhilda Heller. August 13, 2026. An alliance of 55 organizations has this week launched Gaza GenoLIE, an educational initiative about the “generated and orchestrated genocide lie promoted by anti-Zionists and antisemitic networks in the US, Europe and around the world.” It further says that the “Gaza Genocide” is one of the biggest lies of the 21st century. The website includes eight pieces of what it describes as “the Gaza GenoLIE...

Oil pollution on the southern shores of Qeshm Island, which has also reached the island’s mangrove forests, has heightened concerns about environmental consequences on both sides of the Strait of Hormuz, as an oil leak from a stranded tanker has also reached the coast of Oman. Officials from the Iranian regime have not yet officially announced the source of the Qeshm pollution, but Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei says preliminary evidence indicates it originated from “a foreign bulk carrier.” Esmaeil Baghaei, the Iranian regime’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on the evening of Wednesday, August 12, that pollution had been detected...

The U.S. military has enough assets to maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday, adding ships could be rotated in and out ​of the region as needed. Hegseth's comments suggest he is advising U.S. President Donald Trump that the ‌U.S. military can keep applying economic pressure on Iran for as long as needed to help so-far failed negotiations to end the conflict, begun in February. He spoke in Panama after addressing the crew aboard ​the USS Gridley, a guided-missile destroyer, which had previously deployed to the Middle East.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance personally asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 31 to halt attacks on oil tankers serving the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s Black Sea terminal near Novorossiysk, the Financial Times reported on August 12. Citing Ukrainian officials and others familiar with the call, the newspaper said Kyiv had agreed not to target CPC infrastructure or non-Russian vessels unless they were under Ukrainian sanctions or carrying Russian oil or other Russian cargo. Ukraine has not struck tankers near the CPC terminal since the July 31 call. Vance’s intervention came after repeated July attacks had disrupted Kazakhstan’s main oil-export...

Those who fail to complete the Australian Census will be fined if they do not complete it.

As fighter jets launch air strikes on Iran from the San Diego-based USS Abraham Lincoln, now operating in the Middle East, military families are reporting to MS NOW that the carrier's 5,000 crew members are suffering through supply shortages. “Food obviously has been scarce,” said Nicole Conrad, whose son is a sailor on the carrier. “He’s told me there was a time where he was only eating half a cup of rice and two tortillas.” Families say their loved ones are also dealing with long periods with no hot water for showering, laundry service that’s down for weeks and standing...

CIA had doubts about Israeli intelligence on a threat to Trump in Turkey that prompted an extraordinary secret flight.U.S. intelligence officials were skeptical of an Iranian assassination threat against President Donald Trump that was relayed by Israel and prompted an extraordinary clandestine maneuver that saw him secretly fly out of Turkey in an alternate military aircraft, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence said.The assassination threat was relayed by the Israeli government to the CIA, where analysts did not view the intelligence as compelling and conveyed that skepticism to Trump administration officials, one of the officials said.Another official...

When will the left admit this is Islamic conquest? England 1950: ~5 mosques England 2026: ~1750 mosques This is what an invasion looks like. That’s a staggering 34,900% increase in mosques by the way. And, even with all that, with plenty of places to worship their “religion,” they choose to express their faith in Muhammad’s rituals…at revered Christian sites: There are more than 500 mosques in London, but they chose to pray on the grounds of Westminster Abbey, the most sacred site in the Anglican Church. Why? Again, conquest.Since 2008, millions of illegal immigrants have entered the UK. And, that’s...

A temporary open-air pool erected outside Berlin’s iconic theater was supposed to represent the ultimate low-barrier urban oasis. Instead, a plan to allow only Black people to attend on Fridays has sparked outrage and accusations of racism. Conceived as a free, non-commercial refuge requiring no identity checks — though reliant on a competitive online reservation system — the €300,000 project was introduced to the public as a shared summer meeting point. However, the organizers have implemented a protocol that excludes anyone non-Black one day a week, a clearly discriminatory practice.

The two most senior members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, flew out of last month’s NATO summit in Turkey on what was effectively a decoy plane following an Iranian threat, while Trump was secretly moved to a smaller military jet, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. The official, who was briefed on the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details of presidential travel, said Rubio was aware of the switch and details of the threat behind it but could or would not say why he had...

For nearly two decades, Pew Research Center surveys delivered the same reliable finding: The world viewed the United States more favorably than China. That era is over. In its July 2026 report, Pew found China now ranks higher in favorability than the United States across most of the 36 countries surveyed. Gallup data from 2025 already showed China’s median approval edging past America’s. Confidence in Xi Jinping now exceeds confidence in Donald Trump by a clear margin in the countries Pew tracks annually. The Council on Foreign Relations rightly asked what happened. The answer is simpler – and more damning...

Violence across two of the world’s most important shipping corridors escalated sharply this week after an attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels killed six people near the Red Sea and U.S. forces separately fired missiles at a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman. The incidents mark another dangerous turn in a conflict that is increasingly threatening global shipping and energy supplies. They also come as oil prices climb and negotiations aimed at restoring normal traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remain stalled. For investors and consumers, the stakes extend well beyond the Middle East. Continued disruption across the Red Sea,...

During Henry’s Kissinger’s famous “Year of Europe” speech in 1973, the then Assistant for National Security affairs observed that, “our values, our goals, and our basic interests are most closely identified with those of Europe.” Indeed, while perhaps Kissinger’s remarks were accurate when taken in the context of Soviet repression and a shared continental commitment to containing the threat, the transatlantic consensus he described has since frayed. Have some East Asian countries moved to take Europe’s place as free speech protectors? Last September, five armed British police officers stood in London’s Heathrow airport, waiting for the arrival of Graham Linehan’s...

What if the Migrant Invasion of Ceuta Is Only the Beginning? Considering Spain’s late response and the EU’s vain squabbling, there is every reason to worry that the migrant invasion of Ceuta will happen again.When people saw the videos of a horde of North African migrants storming the Spanish-held peninsula of Ceuta, many immediately recalled a famous scene from the film World War Z where a horde of zombies mount a border wall and flood one of the last remaining uninfected cities. Here was a real-life violent invasion of heedless military-aged men stampeding through a small, vulnerable Spanish town, resulting...

Military families and Congress members are sounding the alarm about an intensifying mental health crisis onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as its 5,000 sailors and marines endure a record-breaking deployment at sea tied to the war with Iran.Two leading specialist military papers, the Navy Times and the Stars and Stripes, are reporting that there have been multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard as poor conditions and mental stresses on the Lincoln reach breaking point. The crew is in its ninth month at sea, and has spent 250 days consecutively without making land – a record for an aircraft carrier...

One day President Trump wants to dial down hostilities with Iran. ‘We’re low-keying’ the conflict, he said on Sunday. A day later, though, he was keyed up. After Tehran demanded reparations from Washington as part of its attempt to resurrect June’s Memorandum of Understanding, Trump said on Truth Social that it was the Iranians who should: “Compensate America for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts, for which they are famous, as led initially by General Soleimani, including the families of those killed on the USS Cole, and thousands...

President Trump claimed Wednesday that the US has complete control of the Strait of Hormuz, one day after Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed increasing oil exports from the crucial waterway as Iran’s economy continues to free fall. “The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!” Trump proclaimed on Truth Social. “Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it,” he added. ***“On Sunday alone, over 20 million barrels left the Arabian gulf region, which is above the pre-conflict average.” Only...

Key Points Iran-backed Houthi rebels killed six people in an attack on a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. U.S. forces fired missiles at a container ship attempting to breach Washington’s blockade of Iranian ports in the Gulf of Oman. The twin incidents show how the war is inflicting a toll on two of the world’s most critical shipping lanes. ================================================================== Iran-backed Houthi rebels killed six people aboard a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Tuesday, the first reported fatalities from attacks targeting Red Sea shipping in more than a year. Within hours, U.S. forces said they...

The West needs to take note of a growing threat that could in the long term prove to be equal to or worse than the threat of the Islamic Republic of Iran. “Pakistan Asks Muslim Nations To Join ‘Islamic NATO,’” NDTV, August 10, 2026:Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has called for Islamic nations to set aside their differences and join Islamabad’s defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Turkey to form a military alliance along the lines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Talking to Geo News, Asif said the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement shouldn’t be an ‘exclusive club’ and...