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...

Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq reported drone attacks in their territory Monday amid a lull in US air strikes against Iran, after nearly two weeks of fighting between both sides. The Israel Defense Forces said Monday morning that it shot down two drones over the Jordan border, near the Dead Sea, adding that the drones did not cross into Israeli territory. Their origin was under investigation, the army said. Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry, meanwhile, said it shot down drones aimed at petroleum targets, some in its eastern province and others in the capital Riyadh. It said the drones had...

Around 40% of Iranians consider the US and Israeli military action against the Islamic Republic a “humanitarian intervention,” according to a survey of 31,450 Iranians aged 15 or older living in the country, conducted by the Netherlands-based non-profit research foundation The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN). The survey, titled “Iranians’ Attitudes Toward the 2026 Protests and War,” collected responses from Iranians across the country from June 20 to June 27, 2026, in collaboration with Psiphon, Lantern, and MahsaNet. The survey reports an approximate 95% credibility level with a conservative credibility interval of plus or minus three...

The Washington Free Beacon has done some exceptional reporting on Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s past connections with the Muslim Brotherhood. Between March 23 and April 6, 2019, he headlined four private luxury yacht fundraisers for an Islamic nonprofit organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. One of those events hosted a speaker who has urged Muslims to “stand with” terrorist outfits Hamas and Hezbollah and stop “condemning antisemitism and condemning terrorism.” Left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed headlined a series of luxury yacht fundraisers for an Islamic nonprofit linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, including one that took place on “one...

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...

A wide spread scale over the secret network used to move Iran's oil revenues around international sanctions has [received] criticism. Senior officials have discovered that [corrupt intermediaries] have misappropriated at least $1.6 billion, with some fleeing the country. The controversy has expose the unofficial network of so-called trusts: companies and intermediates entrusted with receiving and transferring oil revenues outside the international banking system. Speaking on state television on Sunday, the head of Iran's State Inspection Organization, Zabihollah Khodaeian, said one intermediart alone had failed to return $200 million in state funds before leaving the country. Khudaeian added that judicial authorities...

The most destructive power in the world may not be nuclear power, chemical warfare, biological weapons, or any modern invention of military science. Such weapons are terrifying because they can destroy cities, poison nations, and leave generations wounded. Yet hatred has done something even more widespread: it has entered homes, governments, religions, schools, courts, streets, churches, and nations. It does not need a missile silo, a laboratory, or a battlefield. It only needs a willing heart. A bomb may explode once, but hatred keeps reproducing itself. It passes from father to son, from teacher to student, from preacher to hearer,...

A video with plans and suggestions on how to kill US First Lady Melania Trump was shared on Tuesday by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Tasnim News Agency. The video, seen by The Jerusalem Post, called on "freedom fighters" to target the shops the first lady frequents. It claimed to share "information from several anonymous security networks," showing schemes of how Melania's security operates and the places that she usually goes in New York. A video with plans and suggestions on how to kill US First Lady Melania Trump was shared on Tuesday by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Tasnim News Agency....

A California children’s charity funded by billionaire George Soros stands accused of sending cash which may have ended up in the hands of a Palestinian terrorist organization, according to a new report obtained by The Post. The Berkeley-based Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) features Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters and activist academic Noam Chomsky on its advisory board and claims to provide humanitarian aid to children in the Middle East. It was founded by husband-and-wife activists Barbara Lubin and Howard Levine in 1988, but has strayed far from its original mission and has been tied to a US-designated terrorist group, the...

Concern is growing in Irish universities over a high rate of refusal of study visas to students in Gaza who are due to take up college scholarships in Ireland this September. RTÉ News understands that upwards of 20 Gazan students, who have all been accepted onto fully funded scholarships for third-level courses, have had their visa applications turned down by Irish immigration authorities. Others are awaiting outcomes. Sources within the universities say the refusal rate this year is in marked contrast to last year, when more than 80 Gazan students were granted visas and left Gaza in an evacuation organized...

Maritime commerce has become increasingly more dangerous lately, with attacks on cargo ships in the Black Sea, the Red Sea, and the Strait of Hormuz, among others. Now, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa have returned to the list, as Somali pirates take full advantage of the instability caused by the Iran war to get back to their predatory ways. At one point last week, six captured vessels were being held off the Puntland coast as the pirates demanded hefty ransoms. Two of the vessels were released on Saturday.” The Iran conflict left...

US President Donald Trump said that the United States is currently negotiating with Iran and will return to war if the talks fail, in an interview with Axios on Monday. "We are in very deep talks with Iran," Trump told Axios. "If they don't work out, we will go back to very strong military action."Trump said that he paused US strikes on Iran to give negotiations another chance, Axios reported, with the president adding that he would not give the talks with Tehran "much time." "Either it goes fast or not at all," said Trump. Trump added that countries involved...

The Houthis enacted a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabian-linked ships and ports, dealing another blow to shipping in the Middle East.Transits in the Strait of Hormuz were down this week compared to the previous week as the U.S. struck Iran for the 13th straight day. London-based Lloyd’s List Intelligence tracked 78 transits between July 13 and Sunday compared to 174 between July 6-12.Both east and westbound transits took a hit with 44 eastbound transits between July 13 and Sunday compared to 101 the prior week. Westbound transits dropped from 73 to 34 in the same period. Numbers may fluctuate as...

Oil prices plunged and stocks surged in early trading on Monday after the U.S. paused attacks on Iran over the weekend, opting against a major escalation of the war. Global prices fell 6% on Monday, briefly crossing below $90 a barrel before moving slightly above that benchmark. The decline reversed a days-long run up in crude prices as fighting threatened to worsen a historic global oil shock. Stock prices climbed in response to the drop in oil prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 570 points, or 1.1%, while the S&P 500 jumped 0.6%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 0.6%.Crude costs...

The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has launched an interactive online tool tracking knife attacks across Berlin, as the party seeks to make rising violent crime a central issue in the city’s election campaign. The so-called “knife app” provides a detailed overview of incidents reported by police over the past 30 days, including an interactive map showing where attacks occurred, the number of injuries, and comparisons with official police crime statistics (PKS). AfD leader Kristin Brinker accused the ruling CDU-SPD coalition of failing to provide sufficient transparency on violent crime, arguing that public concern over safety has grown. Domestic policy spokesman...

They are preparing for large-scale violent jihad in Europe against Jewish targets. And there are likely to be more attempts, as Stephan Weh, Berlin police union chief, suggested when he said: “As a Western metropolis, Berlin remains a focal point for radical Islamist networks, which today primarily recruit new members and supporters via social media.” Nonetheless, Weh states that this Berlin court ruling was important, given the precedent it establishes, and especially since Hamas is not a designated terror group under German law. As Western authorities become more knowledgeable about organized jihad groups, they still lag too far behind. They...

Four men were sentenced to prison in Berlin on Wednesday for operating a covert Hamas weapons-stockpiling network across Europe in preparation for potential terrorist attacks — a landmark ruling marking the first time a German court convicted members of the Palestinian terrorist group under the country’s terrorism laws. The Berlin State Protection Senate — a special national-security chamber within the Berlin Court of Appeal — convicted the defendants of stockpiling weapons for future attacks in Europe, including possible targets in Germany, sentencing them to four and a half to six years in prison for membership in a foreign terrorist organization...

Berlin film festival director Tricia Tuttle defended the Berlinale jury’s right to speak freely on politics, after criticism for refusing to label Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide. ✍️ @HannahBrown972 [link] Berlinale head Tricia Tuttle defends jury for refusing to condemn Israel for ‘genocide’ The issue surfaced following the opening press conference, where the International Jury president, director Wim Wenders, said that filmmakers should stay out of politics.

It's been coming for a while, but this week, the once-conservative firebrand Tucker Carlson has doubled down on a version of reality that would make Iran's mullahs blush. Carlson used an appearance on the East Meets West with Olga and Tara podcast to unload on a provision in the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act that would expand defense-technology cooperation between the United States and Israel. His verdict? Lawmakers who back the measure are acting against America's own interests, effectively merging our nations’ militaries.Carlson didn't stop at policy disagreement. He accused the Republican Party of handing the country's sovereignty...