Free Republic

While news reports have focused on the Middle East for most of 2026, the war in Ukraine has intensified and its potential for continental spillover increased. Also, there is evidence suggesting the globalists are fomenting escalation. Writers for the Council on Foreign Relations say that America should prepare to join Central and Western Europe in an eventual war against Russia. A Russian spokesperson recently appeared on a popular American podcast saying that, at this rate, the conflict is indeed heading toward another world war.State-controlled Russian media reported on Friday that a Ukrainian drone attack killed five Russian civilians and injured...

Walmart is signing a long-term contract to buy nuclear power for the first time ever, a promising sign that the industry’s future is supported by more than just the AI data center boom. The retail giant agreed on Tuesday to buy power from a nuclear plant in Illinois owned by Constellation Energy for its operations in the area, including its stores and a high-tech warehouse in Illinois that stores and sorts perishable food. Walmart will buy 176 megawatts of power from the plant over a 15-year period, or enough power to serve around 150,000 homes. The Walmart deal will allow...

There's so much to pick apart here, but there are really only three things that matter: "Status quo," "End all sanctions," and "$300 billion." As for the efficacy of a denuclearization plan involving the UN... I just throw my hands up in the air. I spent weeks coming up with or sharing other people's attempts to explain what Trump was thinking, from the "rug-merchant" delay strategy to the "there's no one left there with the authority to negotiate" conundrum. But reading these bullet points, you have to wonder if they weren't having the exact same discussion inside the White House,...

Yesterday, we were all sort of stunned to find that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping had summarily dismissed and had placed under investigation General Zhang Youxia, the now-former vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission; see New Round of Purges Wrack the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Defense Establishment – RedState. The removal of Zhang meant 37 of the 81 generals appointed since October 2022 were either under arrest or had simply disappeared. The initial reports said Zhang was removed because he “undermined Xi’s authority, abetted political and corruption problems that impaired the party’s leadership over the armed forces, and damaged...

CIA Director John Ratcliffe told President Trump and other senior officials that evidence gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies raises serious doubts about Iran's willingness to make the nuclear concessions the U.S. is seeking in any final deal, according to three sources familiar with those discussions. Friction point: Ratcliffe isn't the only skeptic in Trump's top team. In internal discussions, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth both expressed concerns and raised questions about the memorandum of understanding (MOU) announced Sunday, while Vice President Vance and U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner advocated for it, according...

President Trump said the supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has agreed to the peace deal, including its provision that Tehran cannot have a nuclear weapon. “They will not have a nuclear weapon, they’ve agreed to that,” he said. “They will not only not have, they will not purchase, develop in any way, any shape, in any way, shape, or form a nuclear weapon. They will not have a nuclear weapon.” The president has been adamant that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, leaving it as a make or break condition in the talks. Tehran had pushed back, claiming...

President Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to the national lab in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on Thursday for consultations with a team of technical experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The White House is trying to reach a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran to end the war and begin in-depth nuclear negotiations, and wants to have experts at the ready should those talks be launched. (snip)The intrigue: Axios was alerted on Thursday to the fact that Witkoff had made an unannounced trip to eastern Tennessee. Two...

The Iranian regime has agreed not to have nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump told the New York Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast — but he added that Tehran could still “change their mind.” “I did have to say we have to do something about Iran, because regardless of how well we’re doing [economically] we can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,” he said in the interview, which was published Wednesday. “They’ve already agreed they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.” When asked to confirm that the Iranian regime had agreed to that term, Trump said: “Oh yeah, they’ve agreed...

Researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) are taking significant steps that can help boost production of oil and natural gas that can be recovered from unconventional formations. The method focuses on recovering these additional resources in shale and other tight reservoirs that have already produced hydrocarbons through hydraulic fracturing in primary recovery operations but still contain large amounts of oil and gas trapped within rocks. In unconventional formations, only a small percentage of hydrocarbons in place are typically extracted. While the new research could help ensure affordable, reliable, and secure energy for the United States. Primary recovery from...

Over the course of their lives, Americans have an average carbon footprint of 1,300 tons of CO2. Paris Ortiz-Wines, a young woman from San Francisco, has already canceled hers out. She could hop on a flight every week for the rest of her life, eat ribeyes at every meal and sip almond milk all day long, and still be in the clear. Back in 2021, Ortiz-Wines played a key role in the campaign that stopped the closure of California’s only nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon. This has already saved more than 30 million tons of CO2 emissions. Ortiz-Wines is part...

Spc. Richard Leroy McKinley’s white marble headstone may look like the others in Arlington Cemetery, but his grave serves as a grim reminder of the first fatal nuclear accident in America. McKinley’s grave is the only radioactive grave in the cemetery. He was laid to rest in a double lead-lined casket and lowered into a 10-foot concrete grave encased in a metal vault with an additional foot of concrete poured atop his casket. McKinley’s family had to watch the eight-minute veteran’s funeral from 20 feet away. McKinley was born on December 2, 1933, in Union City, Indiana, but he grew...

A mutant super pig population has spiraled out of control — thanks to their inherited, rapid reproductive cycles — in the ghost towns of a nuclear fallout zone in Japan, according to reports and researchers. The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, spurred by a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, forced roughly 164,000 people to flee from their homes to escape the radiation zone. Amid the chaos, domestic pigs escaped into abandoned farmland and began interbreeding with indigenous feral boars — creating a mutant pig population with alarming genes, Popular Science reported. Researchers from Fukushima and Hirosaki Universities discovered...

North Korea’s constitution now calls for an immediate retaliatory nuclear missile strike if leader Kim Jong Un is killed by a foreign power. The change, believed to have been adopted earlier this year, was made soon after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was wiped out in the US-Israeli strikes, the Telegraph reported. “If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks … a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately,” the revised Article 3 of North Korea’s nuclear-policy law now reads. The revision, likely agreed on by the Supreme People’s...

The government is in negotiations with French Engie to take over the seven nuclear plants the company manages in Belgium. Doel Nuclear Plant in Doel, East Flanders, Belgium. In a significant policy shift, Belgium is moving to bring its nuclear power plants under state control. The government says it plans to buy the country’s entire nuclear fleet from French energy company Engie, calling it a key step to secure long-term energy supplies. Prime Minister Bart De Wever said the move is about stability at a time when Europe is dealing with shaky energy markets and geopolitical tensions. “This government is...

The head of the U.N.’s nuclear agency said Tuesday that Russia remains open to removing highly enriched uranium, a critical component of nuclear weapon development, from Iran. Rafael Grossi stressed the importance of ensuring Iran loses this supply or that its enrichment is diluted during an interview with The Associated Press… On Wednesday, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to help with “enrichment” during a phone call between the two leaders, presumably in reference to this proposed enriched uranium removal process. “He told me he’d like to be involved with the enrichment — if he can help us get...

Iran’s severely injured supreme leader remained defiant Thursday as he vowed to protect the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and missile capabilities — warning that America’s only place in the Gulf was “at the bottom of its waters.” Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to be seen since becoming the supreme leader following his father’s death, issued another statement via state media rejecting President Trump’s peace terms and the American naval blockade on Iran’s ports. “Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities — from nanotechnology and...

President Trump has reportedly told his aides to prepare for a prolonged US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical waterway for global energy flows. On Wednesday, the president told Axios he is maintaining the blockade until Iran agrees to a deal over its nuclear program. The pressure campaign carries mounting costs beyond Iran. While the near-total cessation of flows through the key waterway is cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Tehran, it’s also choking key corners of the global market. By extending the blockade, Trump is wagering that Iran’s export-dependent economy will...

USS-Scorpion: Two Nuclear Torpedoes Still Sit 3,000 Meters Down — And Nobody Can Retrieve Them In May 1968, USS Scorpion vanished without warning in the Atlantic Ocean — taking 99 men and two nuclear torpedoes to the bottom. Found months later at 3,000 meters depth, the wreck has never been touched. Decades later, the cause of her sinking remains officially unsolved, and those warheads still sit on the ocean floor today. 40 Minute Video at link..................

In 1963, USS Thresher imploded at test depth killing all 129 aboard—the Navy blamed a "piping failure" and closed the case. But declassified documents from the 2000s revealed the submarine had over 800 documented defects before diving, whistleblower testimony proved inspectors were pressured to approve faulty welds, and acoustic analysis of the final moments shows the crew knew they were dying for nearly 5 minutes as water flooded in. The Navy knew Thresher wasn't safe, sent her down anyway, then spent 60 years hiding that 129 men died from institutional negligence, not accident. 26 Minute VIDEO AT LINK...............

The United Nations, in its infinite wisdom has appointed the Islamic Republic of Iran to serve as one of the 34 Vice Presidents of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference on Monday, which is set to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The decision was made by a bloc of non-aligned and other states, typically composed of developing and non-nuclear countries. BREAKING: The U.N. just elected the Islamic Republic of Iran as one of the Vice Presidents of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference.Bravo to the U.S., UAE, Australia, UK, France and Germany for objecting.Last time, only 🇺🇸 spoke out: https://t.co/bmhFp2gKEw https://t.co/Ije4bXbV7u...