Free Republic

SEOUL, Jan 12 (Reuters) - South Korean authorities have launched an investigation focused on the possibility civilians may have flown drones that North Korea said violated its ‌airspace, the Defence Ministry said on Monday. President Lee Jae Myung has vowed a swift ‌probe and said on Saturday if civilians had indeed operated the unmanned aircraft, it would be a "serious crime" that threatened South Korea's security and peace on the Korean peninsula. South Korea is ⁠willing to jointly conduct ‌the investigation with North Korea but has not made the proposal, a defence ministry spokesperson said ‍citing Minister Ahn Gyu-back. North...

As Protesters Are Slaugtered On Iranian Streets By Islamofascism… Thus, Even Before And Regardless Of A Military Strike Trump should send camera drones over Iran so the world can see what the mullahs are really doing to their people. For decades, the regime has controlled the narrative by suppressing journalists, silencing dissidents, and hiding its abuses behind closed borders. Independent aerial footage would strip away the propaganda and expose the reality of repression, corruption, and brutality. Transparency is a threat to authoritarian power, and letting the world witness these crimes could increase international pressure and give a voice to the...

Bush’s second term in office ended in 2009, and he took up painting early on in his retirement, essaying his interest in portraiture with his depictions of world leaders. He then turned to his attention to war veterans. These newer portraits are thickly painted in the loose, vivid style Bush has developed since his early experiments with a more photorealistic technique. They were first shown at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas, in 2017. A book of the paintings, accompanied by the stories of the 98 men and women portrayed – their injuries, recoveries and lives afterward...

How come no one ever challenges buffoons such as Jesse Ventura?

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has called on residents to temporarily leave the Ukrainian capital for places with alternative sources of electricity and heat. That came following a major Russian missile and drone attack overnight into this morning that severely damaged critical energy infrastructure. The strikes, described by officials as one of the most damaging on Kyiv’s power grid this winter, left approximately half of the city’s apartment buildings, around 6,000, without heating as temperatures plummeted to minus 8°C and forecasters predicted further falls.

American Victims Attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran and Its ProxiesSince the 1979 Islamic RevolutionAs of January 9, 2026 — There is no single official cumulative U.S. government figure, but reliable estimates from Pentagon reports, court rulings, intelligence assessments, and think tanks (e.g., FDD) place the total number of American deaths (military & civilian) at approximately 900–1,200+, depending on the inclusion of indirect support.Iran has been held responsible by U.S. courts and intelligence for funding, training, arming, and directing attacks through proxies including Hezbollah, Kata'ib Hezbollah, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, Hamas, and others.Major Documented Incidents1983 U.S. Embassy Bombing – Beirut,...

'You would never find a nicer, kinder person,' the father added about his son. 'He's a committed, conservative Christian, a tremendous father, a tremendous husband. I couldn't be more proud of him.' His sister Nicole posted a photo on Facebook in October 2020 of herself and a female friend wearing face masks with the caption 'I denounce and condemn white supremacy'.

“What the president said is true. The United States of America is running Venezuela. By definition, that’s true,” Miller told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “The Lead” on Monday. “We live in a world in which, you can talk about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time,” he continued. After Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken into custody Saturday, Trump told...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for a staggering 50% increase to the previously proposed military budget to bring the total up to $1.5 trillion. In the Wednesday afternoon Truth Social post, Trump claimed the budget increase was “for the good of our country,” citing “very troubled and dangerous times”: After long and difficult negotiations with Senators, Congressmen, Secretaries, and other Political Representatives, I have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars. This...

Key Points * Headlight brightness has doubled in a decade, with widespread driver complaints and frustration. * Regulatory loopholes allow manufacturers to increase brightness because of outdated federal standards. * Regulations capping maximum brightness for LED headlights have still not been formulated. ============================================================= Illuminated headlights on an urban street at night The Bright Headlights Crisis Is Far From Over If you find yourself squinting while driving at night, you’re not alone. The IIHS reports that average headlight brightness has roughly doubled in the last decade. The NHTSA receives growing consumer complaints regarding headlight brightness. There’s a real, widespread anger out...

Here we go again. Yet another violent transgender creep has been arrested for political violence. There’s a definite pattern here, and the left and their media buddies keep pretending it doesn’t exist. Think about it, these incidents involve a very small group of mentally ill people, yet they are stacking up violent and even deadly attacks month after month, and nobody on the left wants to talk about it. The fake news would rather lecture about pronouns than talk about hammers, broken glass, bullets flying, and right-wing politicians being targeted. Meanwhile, the media and the left are still pushing the...

The success of a lightning-fast raid on Caracas raises new doubts about Chinese military capabilities, a military analyst said. ================================================================= U.S. forces stormed into Venezuela before dawn on Jan. 3 and captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a lightning operation that punched in and out of Caracas before its air defenses could mount an effective response. The operation resulted in no U.S. fatalities and no loss of U.S. military equipment, U.S. officials said. The U.S. mission—code-named Operation Absolute Resolve—has quickly become more than a political shockwave. Analysts have said it was also a real-world test...

Analytical thinking, humility, and reflection predicted greater tolerance to opposing views. Emotional reasoning correlated with closed-mindedness. In A Nutshell Framing conversations as learning opportunities might help, but evidence is mixed. Swiss students accepted wider opinion ranges when told discussions were for intellectual stimulation vs. getting along. But this didn’t replicate with Americans discussing partisan politics, showing context matters in ways researchers are still figuring out. Visual sliders predict behavior better than surveys. Researchers created WEDO, which asks people to mark acceptable opinion ranges on visual scales. These responses predicted which opposing-viewpoint news articles people selected, even after accounting for traditional...

The Viking Ship Museum in Denmark recently announced an unprecedented discovery in the Øresund Strait: the world’s largest and most advanced medieval cargo ship ever found. Hailed as “a milestone in maritime archaeology,” the discovery occurred while divers were investigating the seabed in the Sound, in anticipation of Copenhagen’s new Lynetteholm district, and stumbled upon a record-breaking cog buried beneath centuries of sand and silt. Found approximately 43 feet deep, the precious wreckage escaped destructive forces, resulting in an extraordinary state of preservation that provided archaeologists with a rare, close-up look at never-before-seen details. “It is extraordinary to have so...

Hilton Corporate has finally taken action against the despicable ‘independent’ Hilton hotel in Minneapolis that banned ICE and DHS agents, thanks to the dogged efforts of independent conservative journalist Nick Sortor. As The Gateway Pundit reported, the Department of Homeland Security’s X account shared a disturbing email on Monday showing that Hilton Hotels had abruptly cancelled reservations for DHS officers in Minneapolis for daring to round up dangerous illegal aliens. The specific Hilton hotel in question is the Hampton Inn Lakeville property. “After further investigation online, we have found information about immigration work connected to your name, and we will...

Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey accused senior members of the Trump administration of misleading lawmakers and not getting proper approval from Congress before the attacks. “Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change. I didn’t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress,” Kim said on X. New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed the purpose of the strike was for oil and regime change, not law enforcement. “It’s not about drugs,” she said. “If it was, Trump wouldn’t have pardoned one...

A study published in late 2021 found that, “The psychological well-being of adolescents around the world began to decline after 2012, in conjunction with the rise of smartphone access and increased internet use.” This explosion of social media over the past 15 years has caused a moral panic in which older generations believe the youth is rotting away under the pervasive influence of new technology. Such moral panics are normal, but research confirms there is a real problem this time. There has never been a technological development as psychologically detrimental as social media and smartphone addiction. These technologies have introduced...

Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline. As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice. Therefore, in response to Senator Mark Kelly’s seditious statements — and his pattern of reckless misconduct — the Department of War is taking administrative action against Captain Mark E. Kelly, USN (Ret). The...

Frequently Asked Questions: New Home? We’re proud to have finalized an agreement with the Galveston Wharves Board securing Pier 15 as the new home of Battleship Texas. Learn more at https://battleshiptexas.org/coming-soon What’s Next? Battleship Texas will remain at Gulf Copper Shipyard for now and restoration will continue until her new home at Pier 15 is ready for her. Current Projects? Ongoing work includes replacing the wooden deck, running electrical cabling around the ship, paint prep in interior spaces, replacing the turret watersheds, restoring the 20 mm, 40 mm, and 3" guns, and other projects. Touring? No tours are being offered...

John Mearsheimer : Something extraordinary is unfolding in the Caribbean. A quiet but unmistakable signal that the global balance of power is shifting before our eyes. Russian naval vessels have docked in Venezuelan waters, sending a message that despite what some in Washington may claim, this is not just a simple military exercise. It's a moment of reckoning, a direct challenge to decades of American dominance in Latin America. This isn't merely about naval drills or ships sailing across the ocean. It's about sovereignty, defiance, and the birth of a new multipolar world where nations refuse to bow to a...