Free Republic

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Tuesday that his country will never give up its right “to have peaceful nuclear energy” and urged the United States “to demonstrate in a verifiable fashion” that it wants to return to the 2015 nuclear deal. Addressing the annual high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Raisi said the American withdrawal from the deal trampled on U.S. commitments and was “an inappropriate response” to Iran’s fulfillment of its commitments. […] Iran has long denied ever seeking nuclear weapons and continues to insist that its program is entirely for peaceful purposes – points Raisi reiterated Tuesday...

ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran’s foreign minister said on Thursday U.S. demands to change its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers were unacceptable as a deadline set by President Donald Trump for Europeans to “fix” the deal loomed. [snip]“Iran will not renegotiate what was agreed years ago and has been implemented,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a video message posted on YouTube.

According to Mykola Azarov, the former Ukrainian Prime Minister, Ukraine's economy is a "zombie" that only has one lifeline: Western financing. The former PM wrote on Telegram on Monday that the economy was "falling apart," Azarov argued that Ukraine's national economy is “falling apart,” with Ukraine facing little GDP growth and a potential devaluation of the hryvna "under pressure from the International Monetary Fund." Meanwhile, despite Western help, state debt is rising, and the fiscal deficit is growing, according to Azarov. “The best illustration of the catastrophic state of affairs is that the budget of the country at war lacks...

A federal judge for the second time found the DACA program unlawful, but held back from ordering the deportation of the nearly 600,000 people who remain in the country as “Dreamers.” The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, first crafted with a 2012 memo under the Obama administration, was likewise found unlawful by federal District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in a similar ruling in 2021. “While sympathetic to the predicament of DACA recipients and their families, this Court has expressed its concerns about the legality of the program for some time,” Hanen wrote in the 40-page ruling. “The solution for...

Sunlight beats down on a graveyard for dead solar panels in Yuma, Arizona, hundreds stacked in neat piles, waiting for their next life. The great majority of worn and damaged panels are still dumped in landfills. But with more and more piling up, many people know that needs to change. In this desert city where Arizona, California, Sonora and Baja California meet, North America’s first utility-scale solar panel recycling plant has opened to address what founders of We Recycle Solar call a “tsunami” of solar waste. Plans to address climate change rely on massively scaling up clean, solar electricity. The...

On the day celebrating the American colonies’ separation from Great Britain, Hawaii is relatively quiet in contrast to the continental United States, where fireworks light up neighborhoods across the country. In Hawaii, July 4 is not a joyous occasion for some residents. This is because July 4 is also the day a group of businessmen self-declared the Islands to be the Republic of Hawaii in 1894, before imprisoning Queen Liliuokalani. Later, July 4, 1960, was chosen as the day the 50th star was added to the U.S. flag.

Dozens of LGBTQ+ pride flags were damaged and ripped down at the Stonewall National Monument over the weekend, the third such bout of vandalism at the LGBTQ+ landmark during this Pride month, police said. The latest occurrence happened Sunday, after others on June 9 and last Thursday. No arrests have been made in any of the incidents, and it’s unclear whether they were connected. The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating. On Sunday, officers were called around 8 a.m. and found about 33 pride flags broken and tossed to the ground, police said. Park volunteer Steven...

The situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest nuclear site in Europe, is "serious", the head of the UN atomic energy agency warned. Rafael Grossi inspected on Thursday the Ukrainian power plant, which has been in Russian hands since the early days of the illegal invasion. Mr Grossi, of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), visited the plant in the wake of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which was feeding water into the cooling pond adjacent to the site. The expert didn't hide how concerning the current situation is not just given the fighting taking place nearby but also...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is considering limits on certain food and drink like chocolate milk in schools to “reduce children’s risk of chronic disease.” In February, the USDA first proposed updates to public school nutrition standards that would limit sodium intake and added sugars from students’ diets. Among its proposals included limiting the amount of flavored milk, such as strawberry and chocolate, in high schools while outright prohibiting it in elementary and middle schools. “USDA is proposing to allow flavored milk for high school children only (grades 9-12). This approach would reduce exposure to added sugars and would...

Former President Barack Obama said Tuesday on “CBS Mornings” that the United States was allowing our children’s lives to be at risk because gun ownership has become a partisan issue. Host Nate Burelson asked, “Gun violence is the number one cause of death for children in this country. What is the radical solution? And do you believe there is a larger issue at hand that causes fractures among us in this country?” Obama said, “We are unique among advanced, developed nations, in tolerating on a routine basis, gun violence in the form of shootings, mass shootings, suicides. You know in...

In the service of collecting on slavery reparations, an ultra-woke Denver city council member is floating a generous (with other people’s money) tax on white-owned businesses.Racist taxation policy is Equity™, which is one of Our Sacred Values™ in Democracy™.Obviously, taxing whitey is crucial because Denver has always been a notorious epicenter of White Supremacy™.Via the New York Post:A Denver councilwoman caused a stir when she declared that white-owned businesses should pay reparations.Candi CdeBaca, a 37-year-old Democratic Socialist who is facing a run-off election in June, told a business forum Thursday that white-owned businesses should pay an additional race-based tax, which...

A retired U.S Navy commander who serves on the Naval Academy’s Alumni Association Board of Trustees defended the Navy enlisting a drag queen influencer to appeal to recruits. According to a report by Fox News Digital, Commander (Ret.) Julianna Vida said the Navy using Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley as a Navy Digital Ambassadors (NDAs) is a “critical” method of welcoming “traditionally excluded segments of our population.” Kelley is an active-duty enlisted sailor and a drag queen who goes by the stage name “Harpy Daniels,” and says he has performed on ships during deployments for fellow sailors. Visa said using...

President Biden announced on Monday that his domestic policy adviser Susan Rice will be stepping down from her role. Rice, who has been in the role since the beginning of the administration, handled politically-charged issues from gun violence to student loans in her portfolio. Biden praised her in a statement, saying, “there is no one more capable, and more determined to get important things done for the American people than Susan Rice.” “[W]hat sets her apart as a leader and colleague is the seriousness with which she takes her role and the urgency and tenacity she brings, her bias towards...

MANCHESTER, NH — Formers New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed Donald Trump on Monday during his first trip to New Hampshire this year, when he held the door open to entering the GOP presidential primary against his former ally and signaled he had until June would decide. In a nearly two-hour town hall at St. Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, Christie said Trump’s name more than 20 times, attacking and taunting the former president for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election he lost political acumen and blamed him for Republican losses at midterms 2022. Christie also presented...

Residents of the U.S. Southwest could one day power their homes with solar energy generated across the border — if a multi-pronged plan from the Mexican government comes to fruition. A 120-megawatt capacity photovoltaic (PV) plant in the Sonoran seaside city of Puerto Peñasco already began feeding the national grid last month, while another 300 megawatts are expected to be online next year. “Who could have told me that a state like Sonora, a net importer of energy that has historically been a net importer, now has the potential to be an energy-exporting state?” Sonora Gov. Alfonso Durazo asked at...

Philadelphia will pay $9.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by racial justice protesters who accused police of abusing them at a 2020 rally following the killing of George Floyd, the city said on Monday.

New emails uncovered by House Republicans probing the COVID-19 pandemic reveal the deceptive nature of Dr. Anthony Fauci. They show he “prompted” or commissioned — and had final approval on — a scientific paper written specifically in February 2020 to disprove the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China. Eight weeks later, Fauci stood at a White House press conference alongside President Trump and cited that paper as evidence that the lab leak theory was implausible while pretending it had nothing to do with him and he did not know the authors. ... That paper, entitled...

Just the latest anti-white attack against children in the United States of America. Disturbing video footage from an Ohio elementary school shows black students attacking their white peers and holding them hostage on a playground as they put them on their knees and force them to swear allegiance to Black Lives Matter, the far-left militant group responsible for dozens of homicides and the burning of American cities. The racially-motivated attack took place on February 10th at Springfield, Ohio’s Kenwood Elementary School, where a group of black students celebrated “black history month” by attacking their white peers, holding them hostage on...

Multiple Ohio elementary school kids are facing assault charges after disturbing video caught the group of black students attacking white students — and forcing them to say “Black lives matter,” according to cops. Footage obtained by WKEF showed a tall student grabbing a much smaller one around the back of the head and marching him across the Springfield playground, with another joining to hold the struggling victim. Others joined in when he was taken to an area near swings — with one charging in and knocking the helpless youngster to the ground, seemingly throwing a punch.

Some families in Springfield are concerned about sending their children to school after police said they are investigating “identified assaults” at Kenwood Elementary School. “These are young children, elementary school children who are involved,” Springfield Police Chief Allison Elliot said during a press conference Monday.