Free Republic

Will Yellowstone erupt or are we blowing things out of proportion? We may have underestimated Yellowstone’s potential to blow its stack in the future. Chinese scientists have made a disconcerting find regarding the mechanism behind the caldera’s eruption, sparking concerns that it could belch lava sooner than we’d hoped, per an explosive study in the journal Science. A study on the mechanism behind the Yellowstone supervolcano’s magma flow has sparked concerns that an eruption could be on the horizon. Contrary to prior scholarship, which suggested that the magma originates in large deep chambers, the new study suggests that it could...

With a little more than an hour to go before President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night deadline for Iran to open up a vital shipping corridor, Utah businessman Khosrow Semnani, who was born in the Middle East country, was wracked with anxiety. “I’ve never been worried so badly as I am right now, to be honest with you,” he said. Semnani, the man who opened Tooele County’s low-level nuclear waste facility, was particularly concerned about Trump’s threats to attack bridges and power plants in Iran, especially the nuclear generation facility in Bushehr. “These are counterproductive. It pushes people of Iran to...

As the United States turns its focus away from Asia and dials in on the Middle East, China is reportedly ramping up its deployment of naval power on the high seas. The Chinese navy and coast guard have deployed 100 vessels in the East and South China Seas, according to information that two Taiwanese security officials told Reuters. China’s presence is highly heightened when compared with the usual strength in the theater of about 50-60 ships, according to a statement that one official provided to Reuters. However, these ships are nowhere to be seen on the map. They are all...

RAINELLE, W.Va. (AP) — Every month, Rebecca Michalski takes a deep breath before opening her electric bill. She lives on a fixed income, and heating her small house this winter has been staggering: Her February charge was $940.08 — more than her check. It makes no sense. She turns the lights off during the day and only burns one lamp with an energy-efficient bulb in the living room at night, but she keeps falling further behind on payments. In desperation, she took out a loan after getting a cut-off notice during an extended arctic blast that kept the state’s heaters...

Anthropic has sparked fears after revealing that it has developed an AI bot deemed too dangerous to release to the public. The AI giant released a chilling statement warning that its new model, dubbed Claude Mythos, could be capable of unleashing crippling cyber–attacks in the wrong hands. In a chilling analysis, the company admitted that its creation could easily hack into hospitals, electrical grids, power plants, and other pieces of critical infrastructure. During testing, Anthropic says that Mythos 'found thousands of high–severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser.' Some of these security weaknesses had gone...

Days after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, to a closed-door Pentagon meeting for a bitter lecture. “The United States,” Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.” One U.S. official present at the meeting brought up the Avignon papacy, a period in the 14th century in which the French monarchy bent the Catholic Church into submission,...

Megyn Kelly on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" discussed the damage sustained by the Trump political coalition, the global economy, and U.S. allies, after 40 days at war with Iran. “The question is now not, who has Trump lost. The question is who remains," she said about the MAGA coalition. "He’s underwater with men, including young men and young people. The young person coalition that Charlie Kirk delivered to the president is gone. They’ve abandoned Donald Trump." "These battles in the Middle East have been fought now for 20-plus years, and we continue to learn the same lesson over and over. It’s...

He predicted the 2008 crash, now Professor Steve Keen warns the Iran war is coming for your food prices. Professor Steve Keen is the world's first rebel economist to predict the 2008 financial crisis years before it happened, based on his proprietary data software, Ravel©. He has spent over 30 years as an academic, and is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Amsterdam. He explains: ◼ Why your food prices could double and the one resource nobody is talking about ◼ The 5 ways this war could end and which scenario keeps you safest ◼ How one 20km...

The Pentagon is sending ground forces to Iran. Trump administration officials gave a story to the Washington Post that is being repeated everywhere: The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of boots on the ground operations in Iran, a major escalation in President Trump’s goal to dismantle the remaining faction of the murderous Iranian regime, according to a report. Thousands of US Marines would be sent to the Middle East to conduct raids that include Special Operations forces and conventional infantry troops, the Washington Post reported, citing sources. Officials have been discussing plans for sending troops into Iran for weeks. ***...

Oil prices could surge to as high as $200 a barrel if the Iran conflict extends into June and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, Bloomberg reported, citing an analysis from Macquarie Group. A war lasting through the second quarter could drive historically high real prices, analysts including Vikas Dwivedi said in a note, assigning a 40% probability to that scenario. A separate outlook, with a 60% probability, sees the conflict ending by the end of this month. Brent crude (CO1:COM) is on track for a record monthly gain in March as the war involving the U.S., Israel, and Iran...

Iran’s armed forces headquarters has declared it is ready to close the Strait of Hormuz indefinitely if US President Donald Trump carries out a threat to bomb Iran’s power plants. Its statement Sunday is the latest warning from Tehran of retribution for any attacks on the country’s power industry. Trump said Saturday he would order the bombardment of such infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz was not fully open to shipping within 48 hours. Iran’s military responded Sunday that if the US threats regarding Iran’s power plants are carried out, the Strait of Hormuz will be completely closed and will...

The neocons are now proposing that we can defeat Iran with air power alone. A few Bunker Busters and it will be all wrapped up. Air power alone will bring victory. This has never happened before, so let’s just say that despite their optimistic forecast, we do ultimately have to put “boots on the ground” to force a final Iranian defeat. Time for a brief comparative geography lesson related to just how many boots might be needed, if Iran doesn’t surrender after we shock and awe them with our air power.

Damage to a critical Qatari facility is threatening to keep energy prices high around the world even if the war in Iran ends soon in what some analysts are calling an “Armageddon” situation. Qatar’s Las Raffan plant supplies a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas, which is used for electricity, heating and cooking – but Iranian strikes have damaged the facility, worsening what is already the largest-ever energy supply disruption. “I woke up this morning and thought, ‘No, please no,’” Anne-Sophie Corbeau, former head of gas analysis at BP now at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told...

This morning I went to buy gas in Los Angeles. The price at the pump per gallon was as follows:Unleaded ... $5.3999Plus ... $5.4999Premium ... $5.5999Yet some people here are complaining about gas in their states being $3.50 or $3.60.

President Donald Trump announced Monday that the war in Iran would be over “very soon,” and that oil tankers would be given special U.S. Navy escorts to navigate between the Persian Gulf and global oceans. With gasoline prices and energy inflation already ticking up around the world, the speedy resumption of global petroleum trade has become a matter of urgency for the global economy, according to the world’s largest oil and gas company.The widening conflict in the Middle East has all but immobilized the fossil fuel trade stemming from the region over the past 10 days. Attacks targeting vessels and...

Global oil prices could breach the $100 (£74) a barrel mark within days, and reach $150 a barrel by the end of the month, without a solution ​to the severe disruption in crude flows through the strait ‌of Hormuz, Goldman Sachs has warned. Oil exports via the vital trade route linking the world’s biggest oil producers to buyers in the global market have fallen further than the US investment bank had initially expected after the US-Israeli attack on Iran a little over a week ago. Goldman Sachs had anticipated that flows of crude through the strait would fall to 15%...

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://help.ft.com/faq/gifting-and-sharing-an-article/what-is-a-gift-article/. https://www.ft.com/content/dbd1d803-ab37-43f1-920f-fce74952313a Recruiters and propagandists who previously worked for Russia’s Wagner Group have emerged as a main conduit for Kremlin-organised sabotage attacks in Europe, according to western intelligence officials. The fighter group’s status has been uncertain since a failed rebellion...

The United States is facing an existential threat. My guess is this summer will be the most violent, damaging domestic summer since the Civil War. And I predict the left will win and come out victorious on the other side. They will, after winning this new civil war, seek to eliminate the last vestiges of republicans. I use a small r because while some Republicans are true republicans, most are not. And when the left wins the war, those RINOs are going to “work with” Democrats to create the illusion that America is still a republic, but it won’t be....

Republicans have faced a bitter blow after a set of special election results on Sunday morning revealed that a former GOP stronghold has flipped to the Democrats. On the state level, Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped the 9th District in the Texas State Senate, defeating Republican Leigh Wambsganss in a runoff.The Fort Worth-area district went for Donald Trump by 17 points in 2024 - and the sweeping win this weekend could offer warning signs for Republicans ahead of this November's midterm elections. The president had urged his supporters to vote for Wambsganss in Saturday's election in a Truth Social post.Rehmet, a...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flooded Minneapolis, Shane Mantz dug his Choctaw Nation citizenship card out of a box on his dresser and slid it into his wallet. Some strangers mistake the pest-control company manager for Latino, he said, and he fears getting caught up in ICE raids. Like Mantz, many Native Americans are carrying tribal documents proving their U.S. citizenship in case they are stopped or questioned by federal immigration agents. This is why dozens of the 575 federally recognized Native nations are making it easier to get tribal IDs. They’re waiving fees, lowering the...