Free Republic

In a major win for the Trump administration, a federal appeals court ended a Biden-appointed district judge’s blockade on the deportation of a pro-Hamas foreign activist on Thursday. In a 2-1 ruling, a panel for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals vacated orders from New Jersey-based District Judge Michael Farbiarz regarding the detainment and attempted deportation of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil. As law professor Mark Goldfeder previously wrote in these pages, Khalil — a Syrian-born green card holder — was detained by federal authorities last year “on the charge that he ‘led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist...

The US president is expected to chair the board, which is to oversee a Palestinian committee charged with managing war-ravaged Gaza as the peace plan enters its second stage. Since the plan came into effect in October, Israeli attacks have continued in the enclave, where key questions remain over withdrawal and disarmament. US President Donald Trump on Thursday, January 16, announced the formation of a Gaza "board of peace," a key phase two element of a US-backed plan to end the war in the Palestinian territory. "It is my great honor to announce that the board of peace has been...

Iran is once again on fire. For the better part of the last month, Iranians have been taking to the streets in large numbers to demand change. The proximate cause for the protests was spiraling inflation, but as the crowds grew, Iranians clamored for the end of the Islamic regime. Despite the avalanche of speculation, no one knows what will happen in Iran. That is the nature of popular uprisings, they are unpredictable. To many analysts, journalists, pundits, and academics, this round of protests feels different from previous ones in 2009, 2017, 2019, and 2022—and maybe they are. Or maybe...

The failed ‘ceasefire’ (in which the fire never actually ceased) was premised on Hamas disarming. As anyone with any common sense warned, Hamas would not disarm. And no one would force it to disarm. That hasn’t stopped Steven Witkoff from pushing on with imaginary plans based on fantasies about how Hamas really wants peace despite decades of evidence otherwise.Unmoved by those concerns, US special envoy Steve Witkoff announced on Wednesday the “launch of phase two,” where the goal will be “moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance and reconstruction.“We’ve talked to a number of Hamas people, and we’re hearing throughout...

The chair of Shannon Airport warned the Minister for Transport that protests and airside incursions at the airport were a “grave risk” and a threat to the international reputation of the State. The letter to Minister Darragh O’Brien last May said security breaches at Shannon that month were part of a “persistent and deeply concerning” trend. However, a further incident took place in November when protesters managed to reach an apron and taxiway, before spray painting a US military aircraft. In last year’s correspondence, the airport chair Conal Henry pleaded for help, saying the incursions posed a very serious security...

After more than 2,000 Druze were killed in a brutal massacre, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri says Israel’s airstrikes halted the bloodshed, condemns Syria’s rulers as jihadists and calls for an independent Druze entity in Sweida

Iran's Candidate: This is how Tehran seeks to shape the new Hamas leadership. Iran supports Khalil al-Hayya as a candidate for head of Hamas' political bureau due to his close ties with the military wing and the resistance axis, and its assessment is that he ensures continuity of the military line without internal division. Summary. The upcoming internal elections in Hamas for the position of chairman of the political bureau are taking place at a particularly sensitive time, against the backdrop of the war in the Gaza Strip, the fragile ceasefire, and the increasing involvement of regional players in the...

The U.S. Treasury and State Departments designated several chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) or specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs) on Tuesday. The State Department has designated the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood as an FTO and SDGT, and its leader, Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh, as an SDGT, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a statement. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department has determined the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood to be “SDGTs for providing material support to Hamas,” he added. The designations come after President Donald Trump ordered a review of Muslim Brotherhood chapters for designation...

Iranian Activist Masih Alinejad Slams Ana Kasparian's Ridiculous Iran Comments | WATCH Iranian activist Masih Alinejad torches Piers Morgan for platforming regime-apologist drivel amid Iran's bloody crackdown, because nothing says 'uncensored' like fueling tyrants' excuses to kill.

President Trump was briefed on new options for military strikes in Iran, a senior U.S. official confirmed Sunday. Mr. Trump appeared to lay out his red line for action on Friday when he warned that if the Iranian government began "killing people like they have in the past, we would get involved." "We'll be hitting them very hard where it hurts," he said at the White House. "And that doesn't mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts." On social media, Mr. Trump offered his support for the protesters, saying that "Iran...

Hussam al-Astal, the commander of an anti-Hamas armed militia that operates in the eastern Khan Yunis area, published a video in which he claims that his men eliminated the head of the investigations department in Hamas's Khan Yunis police. The assassination occurred when the department head was shot at close range, close to his home in the Hamas-controlled al-Mawasi area. Hamas initially blamed the Shin Bet for the elimination. In the recorded video, Hussam al-Astal shows off a gun that he claims was taken from the target. He harshly calls out Hamas and claims, "This is a man who harmed...

An Iranian protester told KAN Reshet Bet that many Iranians admire Netanyahu and Israeli strikes, while blaming economic collapse, repression, and inflation for the unrest. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently the most popular person in Iran, a Tehran resident told KAN Reshet Bet on Wednesday... They also told KAN that Iranians were "impressed" by Israeli strikes on Iran in June, as part of Operation Rising Lion, as the air force "focused only on regime infrastructure and did not harm civilians." ...The Iranian is an opponent of the Islamic Republic regime and has participated in demonstrations over the past 11...

President Donald Trump is set to be briefed by top aides this week as he plots out the level of his response to the Iranian regime's brutal crackdown against citizen-led protests. Trump's top military and diplomatic staffers, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine, are anticipated to be present at the meeting, per the Wall Street Journal. The meeting comes as Trump is understood to be considering further US involvement in the region, but no final decisions are expected to emerge until after Tuesday's scheduled meeting. Putting U.S. troops'...

Senior IRGC leaders getting wacked. IRGC planning to preemptively attack Israel. Col. Imahdi Rahimi (gas leak;-) now admitted he was killed) Com. Reza Qasab (droned) Hundreds of leaders rubbed out (or defected? or fled?) Footage of mob beating IRGC man, taking weapons. Mossad has openly encouraged people to keep going, and assured that they are already active in the field. Pahlavi says to have universal general strike. And so on and so forth for 50 minutes of footage and narrating. Transcript linked below video.

Iran has warned it will retaliate if attacked by the US, as protesters defied a deadly government crackdown on Saturday night. Videos verified by the BBC and eyewitness accounts appeared to show the government ramping up its response to the protests, which have spread to more than 100 cities and towns across every province in Iran. Medics at two hospitals have told the BBC that more than 100 bodies had been brought in over a two day period. The nationwide death toll is feared to be far higher. The US has threatened to strike Iran over the killing of protesters....

In the West, they're building mosques, while in Iran they're tearing them down. In an outpouring of Islamophobia, pro-democracy protesters in Iran have been accused of burning down as many as 30 mosques. Video has shown the Al-Rasool Mosque in Tehran being set on fire on Friday, a ‘holy day’ for Muslims, in a show of troubling ‘Islamophobia’ which Iran’s Chief Islamic Judge warned would result in “maximum punishment”. That’s saying something for a regime which already chops off fingers and rapes female protesters before executing them. It’s unknown what occasioned this ‘Islamophobia’ from protesters. Perhaps it was the generations...

Suddenly she’s Golda Meir. Lefty “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – a strident anti-Israel critic – ripped a mob of pro-Palestine protestors who were caught on video chanting in support of Hamas terrorists while marching in Queens. “Hey so marching into a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and leading with a chant saying ‘we support Hamas’ is a disgusting and antisemitic thing to do,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X Friday. “Pretty basic!” The card-carrying Democratic Socialist of America member who reps parts of The Bronx and Queens was responded to a video posted on X showing protestors marching through Queens and chanting, “Say it...

A 21-year-old man with German-Iranian citizenship has been charged in Germany with allegedly targeting dozens of children and teenagers online over several years, encouraging them to harm themselves and, in some cases, to take their own lives. The charges relate to actions said to have taken place between 2021 and 2023. Prosecutors allege that the suspect, identified as Shehriar J. under German privacy regulations, contacted more than 30 minors, most of them between the ages of 11 and 15. Using the online alias “the White Tiger," he is accused of hiding his true identity while building relationships with the young...

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday said support for terror groups has “no place in our city,” after a pro-Hamas protest in a Jewish neighborhood sparked outrage from other elected leaders. Anti-Zionist activists chanted “We support Hamas,” “Death to the IDF,” “Intifada people’s war,” and other violent and discriminatory slogans during a Thursday night protest against an Israeli real estate event held at a synagogue in the Kew Gardens Hill neighborhood in Queens.

The Lebanese daily Al-Nahar on Jan. 3, 2026, quoted Lebanese Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Wehbe Katicha as saying that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro provided Lebanese Hizbullah with 10,000 Venezuelan passports, some of which were used by officers of Syria's Assad regime to flee the country.