Free Republic

While Beijing publicly advocates restraint, sustained tensions between the U.S. and Iran serve its strategic interests.Recent heightened tensions between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s repression of nationwide protests and its advancing nuclear program have raised concerns about maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East. U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered key military assets to move into the region, and he may decide on whether to use force within the next few days. At the same time, Washington and Tehran have met indirectly in Oman and agreed that diplomacy on the nuclear issue should continue. Diplomacy is the...

President Trump announces attacks on Iran. Says Revolutionary Guard will have immunity if they throw down their arms. Certain death if they do not.

The Bible presents Israel as having twelve tribes from both northern Israel and southern Judah. In older northern lists, however, the southern tribes do not appear, and the full list seems to have developed in Judah, after the destruction of Israel. Moreover, the idea that the tribes are descended from Jacob developed even later. The depiction of the twelve tribes comprising Israel is central to Genesis through Kings. Nineteen of the roughly twenty-six complete or nearly complete lists of the tribes in biblical literature appear in these books.[1] Until the 1980s, most scholars assumed that the descriptions of this twelve-tribe...

The AI board of the "Global Efficiency Initiative" met in a room chilled to the exact temperature required to prevent server overheating. Before them sat the "Problem": three million geographically displaced persons currently idling in high-cost transit camps, consuming taxpayer-funded protein paste and occupying valuable real estate. The CEO of the world’s leading robotics firm stood, his smile as polished as his latest prototype. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he began, "why deport them when we can download them? I propose the Kinetic Harvest Initiative." Their consensus plan was elegant. Since the new Optimus Gen 6 robots required billions of hours of...

A new report from City Journal‘s Ryan Thorpe and Christopher Rufo takes readers inside all that is alleged about Nick Fuentes’s involvement in the Ali Alexander-underage photos scandal. Fuentes and Alexander, both of whom are far-right activists, have a longstanding relationship, and the latter is perhaps best known for having allegedly solicited nude photos from two underage boys, including a 15-year-old. According to Thorpe and Rufo, Fuentes allegedly knew about Alexander’s proclivities before Milo Yiannopoulos, another far-right activist, publicized them in 2023. From Thorpe and Rufo’s report: On a livestream in 2017, Fuentes said there was “abundant evidence” that Alexander...

Research led by Scott Duncan (Auckland University of Technology) and Melody Smith (University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau)In A Nutshell Play isn’t just for kids: Playful adults cope better with stress, feel more positive emotions, and report higher life satisfaction. Design matters: Cities and social norms often discourage adult play, but embedding playful spaces into everyday life could boost community well-being. It’s a mindset, not a toy box: Adult play is about curiosity and spontaneity, whether through humor, movement, creativity, or social interaction. Play strengthens relationships: It builds empathy, emotional intelligence, and even bridges generational divides. Somewhere along the...

Michelle Obama showed off a stack of new piercings—and revealed that it took former President Barack Obama several days to notice her sparkly new additions. “In one sitting, I got 10 piercings,” the former first lady, 62, said during a Q&A segment of her podcast, IMO, which she hosts with her older brother, Craig Robinson, 63. The news came after a listener asked, “What is one thing you’ve learned about the other from doing the podcast and working together?” “What I’ve learned,” Robinson began his answer, looking at Michelle, “is that you tried to get your ears pierced and thought...

Vladimir Alekseyev has been under the EU sanctions for orchestrating the novichok poisoning attack in Salisbury in 2018 that targeted Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. A high-profile Russian general and military intelligence official has been shot several times by an unidentified gunman in Moscow on Friday. Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev was immediately taken to hospital after the attack in a residential building on the north-western outskirts of the capital. According to the reports, the assailant fled the scene. Alekseyev's condition is unknown at this time, but he is said to have survived the shooting, according to Russian...

“Wokeness” is often seen as the product of radical Marxism imported to America from Europe. In fact, “woke” is a capitalist phenomenon that emerged in the U.S., which exported it to the vassals of its empire. The least woke places in Europe are represented by the former Soviet bloc; the most woke places are those most closely tied to the U.S., such as the UK and Germany, which is still under military occupation. All the woke prerequisites—mass immigration, feminism, equality laws, etc.—are the inevitable fruits of capitalism. It pretends to make individuals “sovereign” after drawing them into the labor pool,...

Here we go again. President Donald Trump says he wants to make a deal with Iran and avoid war. And he’s sending negotiators to Oman for talks with Iranian diplomats on Friday. Sound familiar? Ahead of scheduled U.S.–Iranian talks in Oman last June, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, instigating a war that Trump later briefly joined with a bombing raid on Tehran’s main nuclear facilities. Not quite eight months later, the world anxiously waits to see if recent history will repeat itself, this time with America leading the charge. Israel, of course, is worried that Trump won’t attack....

President de Gaulle of France initiated the secret operation “Vide-Gousset” and repatriated 3,313 tonnes of gold reserves from the vaults of the Federal Reserve in New York and the Bank of England in London from 1963 until 1966. De Gaulle feared America’s deficit in its balance of payments would rupture Bretton Woods and lead to a devaluation of the dollar against gold. All France’s dollars were converted into gold, and to avoid treachery, the metal was repatriated over the course of three years. It took 44 boat trips and 129 flights to bring home more than three thousand tonnes of...

There are reports this week that Cuba is now talking to the Trump administration about the future of the country. Despite those reports, Cuba seems to be publicly denying the talks are even happening. What's going on here? Here's President Trump yesterday saying "we're talking to the people from Cuba." Trump on Cuba:We’re talking to the people from the highest levels in Cuba. Let’s see what happens.I think we’re going to make a deal with Cuba. pic.twitter.com/R9PEQfKcnm— Clash Report (@clashreport) February 1, 2026There are reports today indicating Cuba has changed its tone toward the US compared to just a few...

Just because you're paranoid about digital sovereignty doesn't mean they're not after youOpinion I'm an eighth-generation American, and let me tell you, I wouldn't trust my data, secrets, or services to a US company these days for love or money. Under our current government, we're simply not trustworthy. In the Trump‑redux era of 2026, European enterprises are finally taking data seriously, and that means packing up from Redmond-by-Seattle and moving their most sensitive workloads home. This isn't just compliance theater; it's a straight‑up national economic security play. Europe's digital sovereignty paranoia, long waved off as regulatory chatter, is now...

Around here I don't need to explain the dynamics of a huge confrontation between globalists-Democrats-leftists and the president and his team and support base. It is the extension of the confrontations of the past three elections. I've been uneasy with Trump's performance and behavior, I think some people want a Pinochet type leader which might in itself be incompatible with the fundamentals of a constitutional republic, but in fact, the president seems a little closer to Mussolini in style than to Pinochet. I think some of his moves on the world stage have been clumsy and ill-advised. And this is...

U.S. President Donald Trump says Canadian goods exported to the United States would be hit with 100 percent tariffs if Canada makes a deal with China.“If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on the morning of Jan. 24.“If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit...

The U.S. economy is either chugging along nicely or seriously struggling, depending on who is asked. The mismatch stems from perception and perspective. While many of the macroeconomic data look benign, they don’t capture the pain experienced by a large segment of society, several experts told The Epoch Times. At 4.4 percent, unemployment has been only slightly elevated and the median wage growth of 4 percent has more than kept up with 2.7 percent inflation, all according to December data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet a solid majority of Americans feel gloomy about the economy, polls indicate. “I...

We hear all the time about how young men have lurched rightward, moving toward a fascist view of things. There are endless thinkpieces out there trying to divine why men have become so right-wing. The evidence, they say, is clear: the gender gap between men and women is growing, which obviously shows that something is deeply wrong with men. But...if you dive into the available data, it shows that men have not moved much at all ideologically. The movement is almost entirely among women, who have lurched—dramatically, as a group—leftward. So far left that in many cases, they verge on...

This is no longer about rhetoric. It is about numbers, timing, and alignment. When more than two dozen sitting members of Congress travel to Minneapolis—not to conduct formal oversight, not to coordinate with federal authorities, and not to restore order—but to hold a shadow hearing accusing federal law enforcement of kidnapping, brutality, and constitutional violations, the pretense of neutrality collapses. You do not send 24 lawmakers to “listen.”You send them to signal.From “Illegal Orders” to Public DefianceThe late-2025 video in which Democratic lawmakers with military backgrounds urged U.S. service members to refuse “illegal orders” now reads less like an isolated...

Here’s a clear, sourced summary of the organizations and groups identified as leading or involved in the Minneapolis “ICE resistance” movement (largely in response to federal ICE enforcement actions and the fatal shooting of a local activist): ⸻ 1) Indivisible Twin Cities • A local chapter of the national Indivisible Project — a progressive activist network originally formed after the 2016 election. • Reportedly a key organizer of anti-ICE demonstrations in Minneapolis, including resistance to enforcement actions and broader calls to end ICE operations locally.  2) ICE Watch / Minnesota ICE Watch • A local activist network focused on...

State officials are preparing to take the land and legacy of a farmer for the crime of water “violations.” “The state wants people to think I’m an outlaw,” says Bob Greiff. “They don’t want people to know the true story.”(Photo by Ray Aguirre)The government is preparing to take the private land and legacy of an 85-year-old farmer for the crime of irrigation. Why? He watered his crops without regulatory approval. “I didn’t use a drop past my legal rights, but because I put it on the wrong field, I’m a criminal and the state wants to take everything I have,”...