Free Republic

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) says the Trump administration should drop nuclear negotiations with Iran and finish off the country's nuclear facilities with a military strike. "Waste that s—t," the Pennsylvania Democrat told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview on Wednesday. "You're never going to be able to negotiate with that kind of regime that has been destabilizing the region for decades already, and now we have an incredible window, I believe, to do that, to strike and destroy Iran's nuclear facilities." Fetterman dismissed the foreign policy experts who warn that striking Iran would lead to the outbreak of...

Fatima Hassouna, a war documentarian who had covered the conflict in Gaza on the ground for 18 months and the subject of a new documentary to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival next month, was killed along with seven members of her family in an Israeli strike this week. “If I die, I want a resounding death, I do not want me in urgent news, nor in a number with a group,” Hassouna wrote in a post on Instagram in August 2024. “I want a death that the world hears, an effect that remains for the extent of the...

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) says the Trump administration should drop nuclear negotiations with Iran and finish off the country's nuclear facilities with a military strike. "Waste that s—t," the Pennsylvania Democrat told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview on Wednesday. "You're never going to be able to negotiate with that kind of regime that has been destabilizing the region for decades already, and now we have an incredible window, I believe, to do that, to strike and destroy Iran's nuclear facilities." Fetterman dismissed the foreign policy experts who warn that striking Iran would lead to the outbreak of...

What you don't know that you NEED to know. The Gathering Storm is a groundbreaking initiative addressing the critical gaps in our nation’s preparedness for emerging terror threats following the botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Through an unprecedented public-private partnership, this project fosters collaboration across federal, state, and local levels to identify threats and implement best practices. We have partnered with the top Global War on Terror intelligence professionals and special operations veterans to inform YOU on the potential for a terrorist attack in YOUR community. The mission of The Gathering Storm is not to create fear as happens in legacy media...

When war once again came to Gaza in late 2023, Palestinian photographer Fatma Hassona began documenting all aspects of life: death, displacement, destruction, children celebrating during Eid, relief as people were allowed to return to northern Gaza during a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas this year. Despite the challenges she faced, the 25-year-old was planning for the future: She was engaged to be married this summer and received news last Tuesday that a documentary about her life in Gaza during the war had been accepted to Acid Cannes, which runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival in France. A day later,...

Thomas L. Friedman, famous New York Times editorialist, does not much like Trump’s plan for Gaza. A skilled wordsmith, he dismisses it, writing, “How short a distance it is between out-of-the-box thinking and out-of-your-mind thinking.” However, the former is correct. This plan is creative, unique, and incisive, and kills several “boids” (as we say in Brooklyn) with one rock. For one thing, it will safeguard Israel. Under an American Riviera on the Mediterranean, there will be no more rockets launched in an eastward direction; no more leaping out of tunnels (a new tourist attraction!) to unleash suicide bombers. For another,...

The powerful unit, and Tehran's insistence: "We will not give it up." Why did Iran set a red line, and how dangerous is it for us? All the details. "Outside the scope of any agreement": Iran's insistence on the missile force, and Israel's containment battle. While the Iranian foreign minister claims that the American team did not raise "any issue other than nuclear" in the talks, Israel insists that any agreement with Iran must also limit the Iranian missile program. • How long will it take Iran to adapt a missile to a nuclear warhead? Can the Iranian missile array...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke via phone on Tuesday with US President Donald Trump, the American leader said, declaring that the pair “are on the same side of every issue.” The call covered “numerous subjects including Trade, Iran, etc.,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, adding that the conversation went “very well.” Notably, Trump did not include Gaza or the 59 hostages being held there in his list of topics discussed amid the ongoing impasse in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. However, according to a report in Axios, the pair did talk about efforts to reach...

Two Mexican nationals in the U.S. on nonimmigrant visas were arrested during a traffic stop in Colorado last month while transporting 180,000 rounds of ammunition, authorities said Wednesday. Caesar Ramon Martinez Solis, 41, and Humberto Ivan Amador Gavira, 24, both of Mexico, were pulled over in Canon City on March 26, the U.S. Attorney’s Office – District of Colorado said in a news release. SNIP It’s hard to know from the article exactly what kind of ammo they had. If “.308” is right, that’s high-powered ammo suitable for hunting with common bolt-action rifles, and semiautomatic battle rifles like the FN-FAL,...

Another day, another leak. More information on the second Hegseth Signal chat group was leaked to NBC News. As previously reported, three Hegseth aides placed on leave amid a probe into leaks were officially fired last Friday. Following the terminations, contents of another Signal group chat with Pete Hegseth were leaked to The Wall Street Journal. “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created a Signal chat with his wife, his personal lawyer and others, and posted sensitive military information into it, people familiar with the matter said Sunday, a revelation that has added to the increasing scrutiny of the novice leader,” The...

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - Dan Caldwell, once one of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's most senior advisors, issued a joint statement on Saturday along with two other Pentagon officials casting doubt on an internal leak investigation that led to their ouster this week. "We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended," Caldwell posted on X. "Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door." Caldwell and the others added: "We still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there...

The Journal of Architectural Education (JAE), the field's premier scholarly journal, has dedicated past issues to topics like the "various nuances through which water and design mix" and the "relationship between stories and architecture." Last year, the journal landed on a different topic for its fall 2025 issue: The "ongoing Israeli genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza." The journal's "call for papers"—a prompt for essay submissions—was littered with anti-Semitic rhetoric. It lauded "siege and prison breaks" as methods of "anti-colonial life- and land-protection" and justified Hamas's Oct. 7 attack as "the rupture of settler containment." The fall issue, the journal...

Ten years ago, when President Barack Obama and other leaders reached a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program, Saudi Arabia was dismayed.Saudi officials called it a "weak deal" that had only emboldened the kingdom's regional rival, Iran. They cheered when President Trump withdrew from the agreement a few years later.Now, as a second Trump administration negotiates with Iran on a deal that might have very similar contours to the previous one, the view from Saudi Arabia looks quite different.The kingdom's Foreign Ministry issued a statement recently saying that it hoped the talks, mediated by neighboring Oman, would enhance...

I think we don’t really realize what’s happening. When British PM Keir Starmer visited the White House, he rejected J.D. Vance’s claim that free speech is restricted in Britain. “We’ve had free speech for a very long time in the UK,” Starmer retorted, “and it will last for a very long time”. Unfortunately, Starmer’s Home Office seems not to have taken notice. Because it has just blocked a famous French writer from entering the UK to give a speech on the dangers of mass immigration, while in the courts British lawyers are trying to legalise Hamas. The writer is Renaud...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law ratifying a strategic partnership treaty with Iran, Russian state news agency RIA reported on Monday.

From Grok: (the article is behind the NYTs paywall) Yes, the claim appears to be true based on a New York Times article published on April 16, 2025. The article reports that President Trump intervened to halt Israeli plans for an airstrike on Iranian nuclear facilities, which were scheduled for as early as May 2025 and would have required U.S. assistance. Instead, Trump favored pursuing negotiations with Tehran to limit Iran’s nuclear program. The decision followed internal debates within the Trump administration, with some officials skeptical of a military strike’s ability to eliminate Iran’s nuclear ambitions without triggering a broader...

MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Envoys from Iran and the United States began negotiations Saturday in Oman over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. No overall agreement is immediately likely, but the stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for these two nations closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels. Flight-tracking data analyzed by The...

Dubai -- US airstrikes targeting an oil port held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed 74 people and wounded 171 others, the group said Friday, marking the single-deadliest known attack under President Donald Trump’s new campaign targeting the rebels. Assessing the toll of Trump’s campaign, which began March 15, has been incredibly difficult as the US military’s Central Command so far has not released any information on the campaign, its specific targets and how many people have been killed. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi rebels strictly control access to areas attacked and don’t publish information on the strikes, many of which likely have...

Aide: Clinton Unleashed bin Laden Chuck Noe Bill Clinton ignored repeated opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden and his terrorist allies and is responsible for the spread of terrorism, one of the ex-president’s own top aides charges. Mansoor Ijaz, who negotiated with Sudan on behalf of Clinton from 1996 to 1998, paints a portrait of a White House plagued by incompetence, focused on appearances rather than action, and heedless of profound threats to national security. Ijaz also claims Clinton passed on an opportunity to have Osama bin Laden arrested. Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, hoping to have terrorism sanctions ...

Muslims Threaten to Sue Spain in Strasbourg Over Holy Week Processions, Claim They “Offend Islam”A group of British Muslims of Iranian origin, led by Anjem Choudary, is threatening to file a lawsuit before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.They allege that Spain’s traditional Holy Week processions are an “offense to Islam” and to the Prophet Muhammad, demanding their immediate ban.The Muslim group intends to sue Spain in Strasbourg over these Catholic processions, with Choudary arguing that these religious events, rooted in Catholic tradition since 1978, are a “provocation” against Muslims.“It’s an offense to the thousands of Muslims forced...