Free Republic

Average ground beef price per pound: 🔵 June 2024: $5.47 🔴 June 2025: $6.12 🔴 June 2026: $6.83 [Tr] Up 11.5% from 2025 and nearly 25% from 2024

President Donald Trump proclaimed on Tuesday that talks with Iran were not happening, a direct contradiction to his own son-in-law and top negotiator Jared Kushner, who said a day earlier that the negotiations were ongoing. “There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the president posted to Truth Social on Tuesday. “The Naval Blockade remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” But Trump’s post may have been news to Kushner,...

If you were paying attention, you would notice a glaring case of two logically incoherent media narratives at play. Specifically, skyrocketing inflation under Biden during a midterm election year was considered a “transitory” blip, but a more tempered inflation rate under Trump during another midterm election year, despite a major war, was cast as setting the economy on the precipice of a complete disaster. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the five-month average annual rate of consumer price increases spanning the Iran War (March-July) averaged 3.6 percent. During the same period in 2022 under Joe Biden, with no...

The two most senior members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, flew out of last month’s NATO summit in Turkey on what was effectively a decoy plane following an Iranian threat, while Trump was secretly moved to a smaller military jet, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. The official, who was briefed on the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details of presidential travel, said Rubio was aware of the switch and details of the threat behind it but could or would not say why he had...

The Iran War, the Epstein files and even the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool have prompted fierce debate on Capitol Hill since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. But there was one topic that even Washington’s political class probably didn’t expect to cause a storm among Republicans this week: the humble burrito. It began on Tuesday with a post on X from Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Turning Point USA. Recounting a recent conversation with one of the conservative group’s student supporters, he wrote: “One of our TPUSA college students gave me his take on affordability. A burrito shouldn’t cost...

Less than a 1% lead? That's all Abdul El-Sayed has after (1) coordinated support from imams, (2) a wave of liberal endorsements, and (3) backing from an Arab Super PAC. NYT ScreenshotFreep. — El-Sayed's lead in the race was less than 1% when multiple outlets called it for him early.

"The conservatives on here denying the affordability crisis are engaged in what I can only describe as an act of political suicide. They're also lying, which is the worst part. Grocery prices are up. Housing. Energy. Insurance. Health care. Basic living expenses. It's real. It's happening. Denying it just makes you look out of touch, deceitful, and untrustworthy. It's also a completely unnecessary and unforced error. No credible person is claiming that Trump caused these price surges. You don't have to disgrace yourself by denying the reality in front of your face just to prove your loyalty to Trump. The...

The 41-year-old progressive won the state’s hotly contested Democratic Senate primary, the most significant 2026 win for the party’s far left Progressive firebrand Abdul El-Sayed beat four-term Rep. Haley Stevens to win the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in battleground Michigan, according to the Associated Press.Here are some things to know about El-Sayed:Unabashedly progressiveLike many far-left candidates, El-Sayed supports Medicare for All and free child care and wants to see the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency abolished. He calls Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide.While he isn’t a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, El-Sayed has support from many who...

State Rep. Francesca Hong’s (D) steady rise in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race is teeing up the biggest test yet for democratic socialists and the far left this election cycle. Hong has held a strong lead in the Democratic field ahead of Tuesday’s primary, while establishment Democrats, including Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, have rallied around Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. Evers and others have suggested Hong is unlikely to beat the GOP’s presumptive nominee, Rep. Tom Tiffany, in November and that she could even have a negative effect on Democrats running in competitive downballot races. But Hong argues that voters are...

The Democratic Socialists of America just won their biggest prize yet, and the man who delivered it insists he has nothing to do with them. Abdul El-Sayed has won the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, prevailing over establishment favorite Haley Stevens in the most expensive Democratic Senate primary in American history. Within hours, the entire socialist apparatus of the American left was celebrating. Bernie Sanders’ machine, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ad money, every single member of the Squad, and the ground troops of the DSA itself all poured themselves into this race. They know exactly what they won on...

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu estimated the intense part of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran would last four to six weeks. It is now entering the sixth month without a decisive military victory or a diplomatic breakthrough. Now, as Mr. Trump weighs his next steps and the future of roughly 50,000 U.S. troops across the Middle East, two of Washington's closest regional partners are pressing the president with sharply different visions for how the conflict should proceed. The president received input Wednesday from his partner in this war, Netanyahu, as well as from Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin...

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...

Iran said on Monday it was still in control of the Strait of Hormuz and not seeking to resume peace talks with the United States, after President Donald Trump halted a two-week bombing campaign that his top brass told him had run its course.Following 13 successive nights of intensifying bombing that provoked Tehran to fire on U.S. bases in response, Trump halted the campaign over the weekend. Iran said it would pause its own attacks for as long as the U.S. pause in bombing endures. Trump's decision to suspend the campaign reflected advice from his top brass that ‌the bombing,...

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...

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...

TEHRAN, Juy 25--RIA Novosti. The Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked an Iranian merchant vessel in the Caspian Sea, the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry reported. "The Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemns Ukraine's attack on an Iranian merchant vessel in the Caspian Sea on the morning of Saturday July 25. The attack resulted in an explosion on the vessel, killing one sailor and injuring another. This attack is a violation of Article 2, paragraph 4, of the UN Charter and an act of aggression that could further fan the flames of war" the ministry said in a post on its Telegram channel. The...

Republican Steve Hilton launched his general election campaign for California governor Wednesday with a gambit to win over left-leaning voters who dominate the state: Even if they loathe President Donald Trump, he said, they should consider voting for him. During an event in Los Angeles ... he vowed to bring the price of gasoline down to $3 a gallon, about half the current cost, cut residents’ utility bills in half, now among the nation’s highest, and eliminate state income taxes on the first $150,000 in earnings... In his campaign remarks and ads he took out in leading newspapers throughout the...

Two airlines cancelling flights to Israel...concern for possible escalation of the Iran War... Trump speaking at the rescheduled White House Correspondents Dinner...donning a "Trump 2028" hat... preliminary hearing in Los Angeles...14-year-old girl...texted about having an abortion... Wounded tonight in Russia's Belgorod Region...Ukrainian drone attack... New York Times publishing a story...Trump switched...using the new "Air Force One'... Wall Street Journal publishing a story claiming... Houthis in Yemen conducting retaliatory attacks on Saudi Arabia... In England the first test subject receiving an experimental vaccine...Ebola... United Nations member countries approving Volkur Turk...second four-year term as UN Human Rights Chief... The fight against wildfires...

Iran has managed to rebuild a significant amount of infrastructure destroyed during its war with the US and Israel in recent months, ranging from bridges to missile bases, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The report, based on a review of satellite imagery, suggested that the speed at which Tehran is restoring its damaged capabilities is the reason why it is continuing to hold its own against the US after hostilities renewed earlier this month over disputes relating to the Strait of Hormuz. One set of satellite images showed that an access road leading to an Iranian missile base...

More than 150 medics have arrived at the US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, in recent days, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deployment could signal a potential escalation of US military operations in the ongoing Iran conflict.The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in the Kaiserslautern district serves as one of the primary treatment facilities for US soldiers wounded in the Middle East. The arrival of additional medical personnel suggests preparations for a possible increase in casualties. Military preparations intensify Bombers stationed at bases in the United States and Great Britain are on high alert, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing...