Free Republic

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini has been killed in ‌strikes ⁠launched by the US and Israel, ⁠Iranian state TV reported ⁠on Friday. Naini, also the agency’s deputy of public relations, was assassinated just days after Israeli forces eliminated the clerical regime’s de-facto leader, Ali Larijani, and its anti-protest enforcer Gholamreza Soleimani. Hours before his death, Naini insisted that Tehran was still able to build missiles despite the US forces’ bombardment from Operation Epic Fury. “These people expect the war to continue until the enemy is completely exhausted,” he said. “This war must end when the shadow...

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Linda McMahon is sending a letter to 43 million Americans with student loans — about 9 million of whom are in default — to notify them that the Treasury Department is taking over debt collection, The Post has learned. The letter describes the transfer of responsibilities as a way to protect taxpayers by improving the efficiency of the collection process — after loan repayments were paused through much of the Biden administration, with borrowers protected from delinquency through September 2024. “For too long, Americans have shouldered the consequences of poor leadership and persistent mismanagement of our...

Uncover the sunken remains of a 4th-century basilica in Turkey. Submerged beneath the waters of Lake Iznik for hundreds of years, the church could reveal crucial insights into the early days of Christianity. Join a team of international researchers as they travel back through time—and grapple with Turkey’s many earthquakes, which could sink the structure deeper at any moment. Sunken Basilica Reveals Glimpse of Early Christianity | Full Episode Secrets of the Dead | 55:35 PBS | 1.69M subscribers | 23,809 views | March 18, 2026

Diplomacy is not surrender, and talking to an opponent is not a reward for good behavior. In dealings with China, Russia, or Iran, U.S. diplomatic initiatives must always be measured not by the process or optics—or by whether they support an abstract goal—but by whether the outcome results in greater or weaker constraints on a rival’s ability to harm us and our interests. Does it increase or decrease his dependency on us? Does it aid or complicate his ability to concentrate military power against us? Does it ease or impede his path of conquest?A corollary has to do with allies....

Disturbing details about Cesar Chavez’s creepy California lair are emerging where the disgraced union titan allegedly raped girls and women while living like a king. Chavez has been accused of sexually abusing multiple young girls and women, according to a shocking investigation from the New York Times. Multiple women, two of whom said they were children, detailed accounts of when Chavez allegedly began sexually abusing them. The allegations have surfaced more than thirty years since the co-founder of the United Farm Workers labor union died in 1993. Ana Murguia claimed the abuse started when she was just 13, while Debra...

The pair met in the Oval Office and fielded questions from reporters, one of whom asked why Washington had not informed Tokyo of its plans to attack Iran. "We went in very hard. We didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise," he said. "Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor."

Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke was originally published in 1689. Its initial publication was in Latin, though it was immediately translated into other languages. In this "letter" addressed to an anonymous "Honored Sir" (actually Locke's close friend Philip von Limborch, who published it without Locke's knowledge) Locke argues for a new understanding of the relationship between religion and government. One of the founders of Empiricism, Locke develops a philosophy that is contrary to the one expressed by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan, primarily because it supports toleration for various Christian denominations. Locke's work appeared amidst a fear that Catholicism might...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s push to revive expired enhanced Obamacare tax credits by contrasting their cost with Pentagon spending is colliding with fresh scrutiny of the Affordable Care Act, as policy experts warn the program is riddled with improper enrollments, fraud vulnerabilities and rising taxpayer costs. "We need to reform the ACA, not throw more taxpayer money at it," Brian Blase, president of the health policy research group Paragon Health Institute, said. He added that "government subsidies don’t make the coverage more affordable. They make it more expensive overall because you have to consider the taxpayer amount." Blase spoke...

California Democratic leaders have released statements attempting to distance themselves from pro-labor union activist Cesar Chavez in the wake of "heartbreaking" allegations against him. On Wednesday, the New York Times published a bombshell report revealing accusations that Chavez sexually abused several women, including fellow labor activist Dolores Huerta, prior to his death in 1993. In response to the article, several California elected officials have released statements condemning the actions and expressing support for the victims. "These are heartbreaking, horrific accounts of abuse. I stand with the survivors, commend them for their bravery in sharing their stories, and condemn the abhorrent...

Curators at the Fitzwilliam Museum noticed that an image of a jackal on a 3,300-year-old Egyptian papyrus had been modified with white fluid, according to an ArtNet News report. The modified picture was found in a copy of the Book of the Dead made for a royal scribe named Ramose, whose tomb was discovered by William Flinders Petrie in 1922. The image shows Ramose placing his hands on the body of a jackal, identified as Wepwawet, a god of war and hunting. Bold, white lines had been applied to either side of the jackal's body and the upper halves of...

An immigration judge has ordered the deportation of a former New York City Council employee federal officials said in January was an undocumented immigrant with a prior assault arrest. City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced the deportation ruling on Wednesday, condemning it as a "miscarriage of justice and wholly deplorable" and pledging to fight back by filing an appeal. Two months ago, Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, 53, was detained during an immigration appointment and was identified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a Venezuelan "criminal illegal alien" who overstayed his visa. Federal officials said despite having no work...

Whoopi Goldberg cheerfully confessed she bar hops as a way to fulfill her sexual needs. On Wednesday’s episode of “The View,” Goldberg noted, “A woman wrote an article in Cosmopolitan, admitting that she fantasizes about being single even though she’s in a very happy longterm relationship.” “She writes that sometimes, she finds herself missing the days of casual flings and bar-hopping,” Goldberg continued as the audience giggled. The “Ghost” actress then turned to her co-hosts for a reaction, to which Joy Behar responded, “Do you miss those days?” Goldberg quipped, “I am single,” adding, “Yeah, I bar hop, I go...

The Belgian capital commemorates the 2016 terrorist attack with testimonies from survivors and warnings about the challenges that remain unresolved a decade later. A man lights a candle as tribute to the victims of the Brussels terror attacks, in Trafalgar Square in central London on March 24, 2016. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP.Ten years after jihadist bombings tore through Brussels, killing 32 people and injuring hundreds, survivors and officials gathered near Maelbeek station to mark an anniversary that remains unresolved for many of those who lived through it. The tribute took place just metres from the metro stop where one of...

ZME Science reports that Shlomi Katzin of the University of Haifa discovered a three-foot-long Crusader-era sword encrusted with shells and sand while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel’s Dor Beach. The Israel Antiquities Authority soon granted permission to recover the object from the seabed and transfer it to the University of Haifa. A CT scan at a nearby hospital revealed that the sword’s iron blade is severely corroded, yet enough of it survives to indicate that it was likely forged in Europe and belonged to a Frankish knight. “Swords were precious objects, and therefore were carefully cared for and...

DEAD MEN'S DUST. You don't buy poetry. (Neither do I.) Why? You cannot afford it? Bosh! you spend Editions de luxe on a thirsty friend. You can buy any one of the poetry bunch For the price you pay for a business lunch. Don't you suppose that a hungry head, Like an empty stomach, ought to be fed? Looking into myself, I find this true, So I hardly can figure it false in you.

Live Science reports that analysis of feathers discovered in a 1,000-year-old Yschma tomb in coastal Peru near the temple of Pachacamac indicates that they came from scarlet macaws (Ara macao), red-and-green macaws (Ara chloropterus), blue-and-yellow macaws (Ara ararauna), and mealy Amazons (Amazona farinosa), all of which live in lowland tropical forests to the east, more than 300 miles away across the Andes Mountains. No evidence for keeping birds, such as parrot skeletons, eggshells, or bird shelters, have been uncovered at Pachacamac, said George Olah of the Australian National University. The chemical makeup of the feathers showed, however, that the parrots...

According to a statement released by the University of Tübingen, an international team of researchers who evaluated a fossil femur unearthed at the site of Azmaka in southern Bulgaria suggests that it could belong to a human ancestor. “At 7.2 million years old, this ancestor, which we classify as belonging to the genus Graecopithecus, could be the oldest known human,” said paleoanthropologist David Begun of the University of Toronto. Graecopithecus was first identified by a fragment of a lower jaw unearthed near Athens. The researchers examined the shape of the tooth roots from the jaw and concluded that Graecopithecus could...

According to the Greek Reporter, an ancient mosaic was discovered in central Athens during construction work on Evripidou Street. Large sections of the floor appear to remain intact. Archaeologists are examining the mosaic in an effort to date it and determine if the floor belonged to a private residence or a public area. To read about lead curse tablets unearthed at Athens' Kerameikos necropolis, go to "The Cursing Well."

"Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world,"

WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is trashing “ignorant” far-left New York City Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her “tone-deaf” approach to Israel — and predicted she won’t challenge Big Apple Dem Sen. Chuck Schumer in 2028. “To accuse Israel [of] genocide, and you’re sitting in Germany, like, can you talk about tone deaf and just ignorant to the history?” Fetterman told podcast host Sean Hannity, referring to AOC’s disastrous gaffe-prone foreign-policy outing in Munich last month. “I mean, more than 6 million Jews [were massacred] — you know the Holocaust — and now to accuse Israel during that just war...