Free Republic

The CEO of a company that benefited immensely from the Lifeline program, commonly referred to as ‘Obama phones’ during the Obama administration, has been sentenced to five years in prison and, along with his company, ordered to pay $128 million in fines. Issa Asad, 51, of Southwest Ranches, FL, and his company, Q Link Wireless, were sentenced for a years-long scheme to steal over $100 million from the ‘Obama phone’ program dating back to 2012. Asad was also sentenced over charges of money laundering. Between 2013 and 2019, Q Link Wireless made $618,736,494 from the Lifeline program. According to the...

Following the 12-day war, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, spends most days snoozing and getting “high,” an outrageous post from the Mossad’s Farsi social media account mysteriously claimed. “How can a leader lead when they sleep half the day and spend the other half high on substances?” the post asked. The statement came from a bizarre new premium X account that launched in recent weeks, claiming to be the official Farsi-language spokesperson — the official dialect of Iran — for the cunning Israeli intelligence agency, with regular posts trolling the Iranian regime. “Using drugs and speaking to spirits are...

The UK closed a tax loophole. Guess what. NYC can expect the same.Extreme Wealthy Flee the UKThe Wall Street Journal reports The U.K. Closed a Tax Loophole for the Global Rich. Now They’re Fleeing.The U.K. is trying to tax the superrich. It’s off to a bumpy start.“I’m on my way out,” said Bassim Haidar, a Nigerian-born Lebanese businessman who moved here in 2010. “There comes a time when you don’t feel welcome anymore, and it’s time to just start packing and leaving.”Haidar is one of the estimated 74,000 who used a centuries-old tax loophole, abolished in April, that catered to...

....Many Muslims, even those who may not fully agree with Mamdani’s approach on every issue, see his rise as a sign of hope in a city where racism and Islamophobia erupted following the September 11 terrorist attacks....

Miloon Kothari, member of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, briefs reporters on the first report of the Commission. UN Photo/Jean Marc Ferré The Commission of Inquiry (COI), a controversial United Nations commission investigating Israel for nearly five years, has collapsed after all three of its members abruptly resigned days after the United States sanctioned a senior UN official over antisemitism. Commission chair Navi Pillay resigned on July 8, citing health concerns and scheduling conflicts. Her fellow commissioners, Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari, followed suit days later. While...

Today’s Wall Street Journal carries Alan Dershowitz’s column “The inside scoop on Jeffrey Epstein.” He was Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer. That’s his opening sentence. He knows the facts. That’s his second sentence. Some of what he knows he can’t disclose because it is privileged (he doesn’t say the privilege is, but I assume attorney-client — the privilege survives the client’s death). That’s the third sentence. These are the takeaways from the column mixed with a few comments of my own. • Epstein never created a “client list.” The FBI interviewed alleged victims who named several “clients.” These names have been redacted...

Zohran Mamdani said he would discourage the use of the slogan “globalize the intifada” in a roughly hourlong meeting with some of New York City’s most powerful executives on Tuesday, seeking to defuse an issue that has prompted a backlash from the business community and beyond. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, was grilled by a room of 100-plus executives at an event hosted by the Partnership for New York City, an influential business group. The audience included finance and real-estate executives, high-powered lawyers and a handful of billionaires.

A teenage girl sobbed as she told a court how she feared for her life as her own father choked her during an alleged 'honor killing'. Fatima Ali, 18, was giving evidence against her parents Ihsan Ali, 44, and mother Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali, 40, at their attempted murder trial on Tuesday. The couple are accused of trying to strangle their daughter outside Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington, on October 18 last year. Terrifying footage first published by the Daily Mail before the trial, and shown to the court today, shows Ihsan put her in a chokehold on the...

The Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs has heard stinging criticism of the Occupied Territories Bill from former minister for justice Alan Shatter, who likened it to legislation passed in Germany in the 1930s. Mr. Shatter described the proposed legislation as the first “Boycott Jews bill” by a European government since 1945, and replicated the type of legislation initiated by the Nazis. Committee chair John Lahart of Fianna Fáil said that a claim made during the proceedings that the bill is anti-Semitic was “hugely hurtful and slanderous”. For some weeks the committee has been scrutinizing the Bill, known as the Israeli...

The gunman behind a deadly Kentucky church shooting was once named a “wanted person of the week” and carried out his rampage a day before he was due to appear in court for a domestic violence hearing. Guy House, 47, had been looking for the mother of his three kids when he barged into the Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington on Sunday afternoon, cops said. The deranged suspect ended up killing the woman’s mom and sister and injuring several other people before being fatally shot by police, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. House, who already had a lengthy rap sheet,...

JLR© @JLRINVESTIGATES: Lexington Kentucky Church Shooter is a Free Palestine Muslim named Guy E House. He hates Christians.

2.1 million people live in Gaza, and a new judicial ruling in France gives every single one of them the right to move to France. If I were Bibi Netanyahu, I would buy every single one of them a plane ticket and wave goodbye as they took their free trip to Paris. If I were a Gazan, I would accept that free ticket and get on the first plane, hoping that the free room and board will allow me to enjoy my time there.

BUSRA AL-HARIR, Syria (AP) — Israel’s army said Monday it has struck military tanks in southern Syria, where government forces and Bedouin tribes clashed with Druze militias. Dozens of people have been killed in the fighting between local militias and clans in Syria ’s Sweida province. Government security forces that were sent to restore order Monday also clashed with local armed groups. Syria's Interior Ministry has said more than 30 people have died and nearly 100 others have been injured. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, reported at least 89 dead, including two children, two women...

The Dutch PEGIDA leader Edwin Wagensveld has been featured in this space a number of times (most recently here). He is renowned for his Islamophobic acts, the most controversial of which is the burning of a Koran. In the following video, which was recorded on the street near the recent NATO conference in The Hague, Mr. Wagensveld tries a different tactic: he repeatedly drops a Koran on the ground and steps on it. To be struck or touched with a shoe is considered the vilest of insults in Islam, so putting one’s foot on a Koran is doubly blasphemous. In...

A 42-year-old Egyptian man has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of raping a 15-year-old American tourist who was vacationing on the Amalfi Coast with her family. The attack happened on Tuesday evening when the victim's parents had gone out briefly. The perpetrator, legally residing in Italy and employed at the hotel where the family was staying, took advantage of the situation to attack and rape her. After the assault, the girl called her father to tell him what had happened. When he returned to the hotel, he spotted the man and attacked him. The victim's father was subsequently arrested...

Areligious decree or fatwa issued by two senior Iranian clerics calling for the killing of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly gained support from about 10 other clerics and attracted alleged fundraising online. The ten state-appointed clerics issued an open letter on Monday referring to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister as "infidel combatants", an Islamic legal term for a non-believer at war with Muslims who deserves death. In a speech delivered in Azeri, another state-appointed cleric in Iran's West Azarbaijan Province announced a reward of 100 billion tomans (approximately $1.14 million) for anyone who kills Trump....

TERRORIST CONNECTIONS Not only was Mr. Norquist entangled with the criminal dealings of Jack Abramoff, but documentation shows that he has deep ties to supporters of Hamas and other terrorist organizations that are sworn enemies of the United States and our ally Israel. According to Senate lobbying disclosure records of his now defunct lobbying firm, Janus-Merritt Strategies, around the years 2000 and 2001 Mr. Norquist’s firm represented Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was convicted two years later for his role in a terrorist plot and who is presently serving a 23-year sentence in federal prison. Court documents and a October 15, 2004,...

Rescuers launched a search Wednesday for survivors of a Liberian-flagged cargo ship that came under attack from Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, authorities said. At least three mariners were killed and two were wounded. The attack on the Greek-owned Eternity C follows the Iranian-backed Houthis attacking another vessel, the bulk carrier Magic Seas, on Sunday in the Red Sea, which they subsequently sank. The assaults are the first Houthi attacks on shipping since late 2024 in the waterway that had begun to see more ships pass through in recent weeks.

Prosecutors in Toulouse, France, have requested a police investigation into the harassment of a South Korean livestreamer who was verbally abused while broadcasting in the city last week, an incident that has drawn widespread criticism in both South Korea and France. According to French news outlet Le Figaro on Sunday, Toulouse prosecutor David Charmatz said he has referred the case to the regional police department for investigation as a possible assault, which could involve racist and sexist motives. The incident occurred on May 7, when Yoo Yoon-jin, a South Korean content creator known online as Jinnytty, was livestreaming a walk...

A six-year-old girl has allegedly been forced to marry a 45-year-old man in Afghanistan after she was given away for money. The haunting photo of an older man and a little girl standing together horrified even the Taliban, who intervened with the union. The youngster had allegedly been exchanged by her father for money to a man who already has two wives, it was reported by Amu.tv. The marriage was allegedly set to take place on Friday in Helmand province but the Taliban stepped in and arrested both men involved. No charges were brought against them but they have forced...