Free Republic

Yemeni government forces claimed on Monday to have retaken control of key positions near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a vital chokepoint for global trade, as they launch a renewed campaign to roll back recent gains made by the Iran-backed Houthi movement. Military spokesperson Majid Al-Nuzaili claimed on X that government forces “have succeeded in controlling Bab al-Mandeb,” adding that they have “cut off” and taken control of the road between Dhubab district, which overlooks Bab al-Mandeb, and the port town of Mocha, previously seized by the Houthis. CNN hasn’t independently verified the claim. Forces, which are backed by Saudi Arabia,...

Iran’s worsening economic crisis has opened an increasingly bitter argument over who is responsible, as the government points to outside pressure and market psychology while hardliners accuse Tehran’s own economic officials of making the situation worse. On Thursday, the end of Iran’s market week, the rial fell to another record low. Year-on-year inflation has reached almost 90 percent, with food prices rising even faster. The deterioration comes as US sanctions and a naval blockade squeeze Iran’s sources of revenue. The blockade has severely constrained oil exports, while Washington on Thursday expanded sanctions into the automotive and rail sectors, targeting some...

Two terrorist attacks were attempted on Monday within hours of each other in Judea and Samaria. IDF forces operating near Bani Naim in the Hebron Hills saw a vehicle with three terrorists moving suspiciously. The vehicle then accelerated toward the forces' vehicle and struck it. In response, the soldiers fired toward the vehicle, and hits were identified. No IDF soldiers were hurt. According to reports from the scene, one of the suspects was killed, another was severely wounded, and the third was arrested. A few hours later, two terrorists, at least one armed with a knife, entered the grazing areas...

Iran’s oil minister, Mohsen Paknejad, has resigned and been replaced by the country’s top oil executive, the president’s office says in a statement, amid a blockade on Tehran’s oil exports by the United States. “Following the acceptance of Mohsen Paknejad’s resignation, Hamid Bovard,” the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company, “has been appointed as acting Minister of Oil by a decree from the president,” says the statement carried by state broadcaster IRIB. In a news bulletin on the minister’s resignation, state television runs an interview with an official from the Iranian presidential office who says Paknejad initially offered his...

Dear Tucker, As men with public platforms, our responsibility is to tell the truth — whether one may or may not receive payment from middle eastern antisemitic propagandists. That standard applies to me. It applies to you too, Mr. Carlson. For months, you and others have used the word "genocide" to describe what's happened in Gaza — not as a legal conclusion reached through evidence and process, but as settled, obvious fact, repeated with total confidence to millions of listeners. This week, the Gaza Health Ministry itself — the same Hamas-run body that has supplied you the death toll numbers...

Christian@InTheTrenchesUK·7hTHIS MORNING. RAF FAIRFORD. 00:45.A pensioner called 999. Not MI5. Not GCHQ. A villager spotted three suspicious vans heading toward a US bomber base and dialled 999.Five men arrested under the Explosives Act, then upgraded to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act: preparation of a terrorist act. Three vans. 85 homes evacuated at 1.30am. Army bomb disposal robot inside a 400-metre cordon. Counter Terrorism Policing now leading. Major incident declared.The operation was not intelligence-led. A resident made a phone call. That is what stopped it.The IRGC already told you this was coming.In July 2026, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued...

When the first survivors’ accounts came out of Israel’s kibbutzim, I had the terrible sense that I had heard them before. And I had, in South Sudan. More than two decades earlier, I traveled to Sudan to witness Christian Solidarity International freed 2,952 black Africans from slavery. My American Anti-Slavery Group had helped raise funds to buy back their freedom. The freed slaves told us that the raiders came at dawn, screaming “Allahu akbar!” and murdered at will. They gang-raped the women and girls, then dragged them off as captives to use as concubines, domestics, or to sell. On October...

A pro-Palestine group at UC Berkeley is proudly hosting Hamas sympathizer and former Columbia professor Mohamed Abdou the day before the 3rd anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks. The university confirmed to the California Post that Abdou will appear via Zoom before a group of students in an on-campus event space. He’s also set to appear before Claremont College students on Oct. 7. Abdou is infamous for writing on social media, just days after the Oct. 7 attacks, that he is “with Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.” The post led to his firing from Columbia University. The controversial professor is...

The Treasury Department announced Friday that its Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned "a member of Hamas’s military wing, along with two France-based individuals and two affiliated entities that provide critical financing to Hamas." “These designations expose a sophisticated, multi‑year financing architecture that moved more than $2 million to Hamas through deceptive charitable fronts and cryptocurrency channels, demonstrating the organization’s persistent ability to adapt its fundraising mechanisms to evade detection,” the department said in a statement. It added that Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, who was targeted in Friday's action, "is a Gaza-based battalion deputy in the Hamas military wing who...

A Department of Energy electrical engineer has been arrested on charges of providing support to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, including by buying materials for homemade explosives and drones and traveling to Yemen, the Justice Department said Thursday. Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, 51, of Richland, Washington, was arrested Thursday and is due to make his first court appearance Friday. Court records do not list an attorney available to speak on his behalf. The FBI says Ellaboudy had a goal of helping the Houthis improve their communications capabilities and traveled last September to Yemen, where the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces are now...

The Left’s cries of “genocide” against Israel ring hollow when many of its loudest critics ignore the far bloodier histories of their own ancestral homelands. On October 7, 2023, Hamas killers slaughtered 1,200 people, more than two-thirds of them civilians, inside Israel. For the ensuing three weeks, they refused Israel’s demands to turn over the 251 hostages and to surrender the architects of the massacre. No matter—within a day of the attacks, when Hamas gunmen were still fighting Israeli troops on Israeli soil, the American Left was already screaming “genocide!” They did not mean Hamas’s intended genocide of Jews, a...

Two Louisiana brothers are facing terrorism charges for their alleged role in a twisted scheme to fund Hamas under the guise of Gaza humanitarian aid – and they were brought down with the help of the NYPD. Abdel Adhami and his sibling Omar Adhami were busted in the Pelican State last month for allegedly raising money online and funneling it to Saleem Alzaq, a member of the terror group who regularly uses social media to post Hamas propaganda, according to newly unsealed federal indictments. Abdel allegedly funneled more than $83,000 to Hamas from 2023 to 2026 while his brother is...

Two Louisiana brothers are facing terrorism charges for their alleged role in a twisted scheme to fund Hamas under the guise of Gaza humanitarian aid – and they were brought down with the help of the NYPD. Abdel Adhami and his sibling Omar Adhami were busted in the Pelican State last month for allegedly raising money online and funneling it to Saleem Alzaq, a member of the terror group who regularly uses social media to post Hamas propaganda, according to newly unsealed federal indictments. Abdel allegedly funneled more than $83,000 to Hamas from 2023 to 2026 while his brother is...

Hezbollah terrorists in Yemen received $157 million worth of weapons in 2024, most of it given freely by Iran, according to a new report from the Israeli nonprofit Center for Research of Terror Financing (CENTEF). The report, titled "Hezbollah Financial Statements," relied on open-source data as well as known valuations of Hezbollah's military assets, according to the Jerusalem Post. The report found that Hezbollah spent just $28 million on procuring weapons, and those were limited to small arms, ammunition, drone components, dual-use equipment and equipment obtained through its international procurement networks. Meanwhile, CENTEF said Iran provided roughly $129 million worth...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps put out a 25-page letter addressed to Americans urging them to oppose President Donald Trump during the upcoming midterm elections. The IRGC, which as repeatedly tried to sway the Nov. 3 US elections, claimed that the president and his support of Israel were the cause of the war — as they urged voters to reject both in the voting booth. “America’s national security and the lives of its service members are entrusted to someone who is not only an inveterate liar but is also an insanely avaricious man whose only motivation in life ​is the...

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a terrorist organization formally belonging to the Iranian armed forces, published a 26-page open letter to the American people on Tuesday inviting Americans to visit the Strait of Hormuz, insisting “death to America” did not mean Iran wished death on America, and suggesting the September 11, 2001, jihadist attacks were a “false-flag operation.”“It should be fairly obvious that the phrase ‘Death to America,’ which Iranians have been chanting since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, does not in any way express any ill will toward the American people,” the IRGC officials wrote. “Death to...

To the honorable people of the United States of America—the scholars, the students, and the members of the media, We begin this letter by saluting the noble souls of God’s greatest prophets—Noah, Abraham,Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, may His peace and blessings be upon them all. … …it should be fairly obvious that the phrase "Death to America," which Iranians have been chanting since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution… is a prayer for the eradication of the diabolical ruling elite whose seat of power is the White House. The men enthroned at the White House oppress both Iranians and Americans....

The Omani copilot who stabbed the pilot on the flydubai flight yesterday discussed killing Jews on social media, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.The official adds that the attacker asked the Emirati crew members to kill him, citing conversations with passengers on the flight. “This was a person who was willing to commit suicide,” says the official. “His social media accounts [say] clearly that he has been radicalized into jihadist ideology. He talks about killing Jews.”“We can’t say for sure until the investigation’s over,” the official continues, “but it certainly seems like he was a suicide actor who...

In an extraordinary example of individuals from hostile countries working together to save lives, Israeli media that spoke with airport authorities are saying that the alternate pilot crew who landed a hijacked flight safely included a Russian and a Ukrainian. Israel Hayom identified the brave off-duty pilots’ nationalities after speaking with officials at the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The temporarily hijacked FlyDubai flight was headed for Tel Aviv in Israel, with many Israeli passengers, but after the violent incident it diverted to Tabuk for an emergency landing. There was some initial confusion about the...

This video reports on a dangerous in-flight incident involving a Fly Dubai flight to Israel (0:09). Key events include: The Attack: A co-pilot reportedly stabbed the captain mid-flight (0:20-0:23), leading to a rapid, terrifying loss of altitude (1:47-2:18). Heroic Response: Passengers, along with off-duty crew and another pilot who was on board, intervened to neutralize the attacker and regain control of the aircraft (3:23-3:45, 6:52-7:54). Emergency Outcome: The plane landed safely in Saudi Arabia (4:43), and many passengers later continued their journey to Tel Aviv (4:48-5:06). Investigation: The attacker was arrested (8:35). The video discusses potential geopolitical implications, citing the...