Free Republic

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has "certainly gotten some things wrong", US Vice-President JD Vance has said, as ties between the two partners in the war against Iran appear to have become strained in recent weeks. While Vance would not provide examples, he told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that Netanyahu "aggressively asserts the interests of his country" but that they were not always aligned with those of the US. His comments mark a further public admission that relations between the two allies have come under pressure of late. Recently, US President Donald Trump reportedly clashed with the Israeli...

Inflation surged in May to the highest level since early 2023, as Iran war-related fuel costs worked their way through the broader economy.

President Donald Trump told the media on Wednesday, “I love the inflation” report that came out earlier in the morning, showing inflation had risen above 4% for the first time in three years. “Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number, which came out this morning? Could that be a–” a reporter asked Trump during an Oval Office Q&A. Trump cut in and answered, “No, I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation.” “You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know, I can say...

Given its oft-proclaimed calling as a peace project, the European Union can sound oddly bellicose when it sets about crafting policy. There are trade and fiscal “bazookas” to blast away crises, “silver bullet” solutions for every problem, and “nuclear options” to be used as a last resort. Yet in the absence of an EU army or even a police force, the pen-wielding Eurocracy rarely gets its hands on anything that looks like an actual weapon. The only exception—tellingly—is the club’s border-patrol agency. For over a decade after it was founded in 2005, Frontex agents wielded little more than whistles and...

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the crash involving a US Apache helicopter was not a “major incident” and that the pilot was safe, while affirming that sanctions and restrictions targeting Iranian ports would remain in place for as long as necessary. [ snip ] Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi denied Iranian involvement in the incident over the Strait of Hormuz, stating that “Iran was not behind the attack” and that there had been no deliberate action targeting the aircraft.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s latest strikes on Lebanon and Iran have made clear that U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who started the war in lockstep, want different things.Trump had publicly warned Israel not to strike Beirut in its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. When it did, on Sunday, Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at Israel for the first time since the April ceasefire. Israel then struck Iran, with which Trump has been engaged in weeks of high-stakes negotiations.The fighting has since died down, but the differences between the two leaders are likely to persist.That’s...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on Iran following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz that President Donald Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic.U.S. Central Command said on social media that the strikes would be "a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression." Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane that Iran has effectively closed during the war, before saying that the wave of American attacks in the south has "subsided."Trump said earlier...

Yes, my flame-retardant suit is on, but this is an honest question. What has happened to the two right sidebars here that used to be very good sources for TRULY breaking news stories? I've seen FReepers try to post actual breaking stories there, and some moderator deletes them from the sidebar, until all there is over there on Breaking News is commie Sunday television talk show posts. What has happened? I know Jim is gone, but I also know that this site needs money support. Crushing the breaking news sidebars is not a good way to get support.

US Vice President JD Vance says the United States and Israel “have a lot of shared interests, but we also have some situations where our interests diverge,” as Fox News host Jesse Waters begins an interview by asking him how “concerned are you about Israel spying on the United States and freelancing in Lebanon?” “I think where the president has been very clear here is that while Israel obviously has some objectives that it has, the United States’ main objective in Iran is to ensure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon,” Vance says, without actually addressing the questions...

Israel conducted strikes on military targets in western and central Iran early Monday local time, the Israeli military announced, escalating a conflict that had already broken through the ceasefire just hours earlier when Iran fired multiple waves of missiles at Israel on Sunday. The strikes came despite a direct phone call from President Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him not to retaliate immediately for the Iranian missile attack. A senior U.S. official told the Associated Press, on condition of anonymity to describe a private call, that Trump believed he had convinced Netanyahu to wait. Israel struck anyway....

Alarmed by Trump’s public flirtation with supporting a Florida abortion-rights ballot measure, Live Action founder Lila Rose traveled to the president’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club in September 2024 for a private intervention. During a sit-down that lasted more than two hours, Rose tried to persuade the president to adopt a stronger pro-life position on the campaign trail. She showed Trump videos narrated by former abortion doctors explaining how procedures are performed in graphic detail, hoping to convince him not to abandon a social-conservative movement that had stood by him for three presidential campaigns. But his response unsettled her... “That...

After years of being asked to leave gratuities everywhere from coffee shops and takeout counters to ride-share apps and self-service kiosks, many consumers say they have had enough - and are now tipping less than they did just a year ago. A new nationwide survey found that 78 percent of Americans believe tipping culture has become 'ridiculous,' while nearly half say they have actively cut back on gratuities in 2026 as household budgets come under increasing pressure. The findings, from restaurant technology company Popmenu, suggest a growing backlash against what many consumers see as relentless requests for extra money on...

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has claimed it has launched a missile attack on a petrochemical plant in Haifa, northern Israel, according to a statement reported by Iranian Tasnim news agency. Tasnim quotes the IRGC as saying the attacks were in response to an earlier attack by Israel on an Iranian petrochemical facility in Mahshahr, in the south-west of the country. It warned Israel has started a "dangerous game" and further attacks on non-military and energy targets in the region would have consequences for the global economy.

Donald Trump said he would plead with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate against Iranian strikes on Israel - which came in response to Israeli strikes on Beirut on Sunday. ‘I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate,’ Trump was quoted as saying by Axios journalist Barak Ravid in a phone interview, using the Israeli leader’s nickname. ‘Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,’ Mr Trump said. Trump described the attack - the first Iranian strikes on Israeli soil...

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar appointed veteran diplomat George Deek to a newly created role as special envoy to the Christian world, in a move “intended to deepen Israel’s ties with Christian communities around the world,” amid a series of damaging scandals... Deek, who most recently served as Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, was the country’s first Christian ambassador and is a member of the Arab Christian community in Jaffa... Despite Israel’s protestations that it values relations with the Christian world, recent months have seen a string of embarrassing scandals and attacks on Christians that have strained Israel’s relations with the Christian...

One potential coalition, which would be healthy for both the party and the country, would be between social conservatives and antiwar voters. In the time since the election, both of these groups have been repeatedly disappointed, especially by the [Trump] administration’s war with Iran and its approval, through the FDA, of a new form of mifepristone, a dangerous abortion pill... These two disappointed factions are naturally complementary coalition partners, particularly on the pro-life issue. There is a natural connection between the defense of innocent human life at home through pro-life policies and protecting it abroad by avoiding unjust wars. There’s...

President Trump denied Friday that he campaigned on avoiding “endless” wars, as he seeks to reach a deal to end hostilities with Iran. “I didn’t promise anything. I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war,” he told host Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” in an interview that aired Sunday. “We’ve been doing this for three months,” Trump added, referring to the Iran conflict that began on Feb. 28. “Much of it has been under… a pretty good form of ceasefire.” The president later said that he would “not have built the strongest military in...

Thomas Massie isn’t acting like a defeated man. After losing the most expensive primary race in American history last month, largely thanks to pro-Israel figures and groups spending millions to defeat him (according to the Federal Election Commission, Massie received donations from 1,119 individuals actually living in Kentucky, compared to only 98 for his opponent Ed Gallrein), Massie announced just days later, “I filed with FEC for the 2028 House race.” He explained, “This allows me to raise funds to continue my political operations supporting my position as a current office holder and as a potential candidate for federal office.”...

Thousands of people attended the 24th Jerusalem Pride Parade on Thursday, in honor of Pride Month. As part of the opening to the event, former prime minister Yair Lapid announced that in the first 100 days of the next government, they would pass a law ensuring that all couples in Israel would be equal. "Mother and father, father and father, mother and mother, all will have the same rights, all will be equal before the law," he said. "We stand here with the entire gay community today to say: The situation is not a given, reality is not a decree...

Exorcist Stephen Rossetti: "Most UFO sightings are likely Demons" 👽😱 A Catholic Priest for the Archdiocese of Washington, he explains that demons hide to manipulate us more effectively. "Demons like to hide. They don't want us to know they're out... they can kind of get into your head and manipulate things in the world to influence us to do evil." "Don't visit mediums, you think you are in touch with dead relatives but it's probably a Demon" He notes demons can manifest in the physical world as shadow figures, orbs of light, or even UFOs. "There's no question in my...