Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday he will try to advance wartime aid for Israel this week as he attempts the difficult task of winning House approval for a national security package that also includes funding for Ukraine and allies in Asia. Johnson, R-La., is already under immense political pressure from his fellow GOP lawmakers as he tries to stretch between the Republican Party’s divided support for helping Kyiv defend itself from Moscow’s invasion. The Republican speaker has sat for two months on a $95 billion supplemental package that would send support to the U.S. allies, as...

Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters on Sunday, adding that Washington had conveyed to Tehran via Ankara that any action it took had to be "within certain limits." The Turkish source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had spoken to both his US and Iranian counterparts in the past week to discuss the planned Iranian operation, adding Ankara had been made aware of possible developments. Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Fidan to make clear that escalation in the...

On Saturday, Iran initiated a barrage of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel. Thankfully, most of them were successfully intercepted and caused minimal damage. Of course, in a stunning move, President Biden is pushing Israel not to retaliate. It's hard to imagine why Biden would do that, except when you consider that Joe Biden has been appeasing Iran since his days as Barack Obama's vice president. With that in mind, it's also not surprising—though it's still shocking— that Joe Biden not only had prior knowledge of Iran's assault on Israel but also technically gave it the green light under certain...

Republican lawmakers on Saturday demanded the U.S. launch a retaliatory strike against Iran for the drone and missile attacked launched against Israel. On Saturday, Iran launched hundreds of suicide drones toward Israel and later ballistic missiles in a retaliatory attack for an airstrike on the Iranian consulate building in Syria that killed Tehran’s top commanders. President Joe Biden vowed prior to the attack to do everything possible to protect Israel. However, aid to Israel amid the country’s war with Hamas has been delayed due to division within the Republican party. Following the attack, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced the House...

The G7 leaders, representing the countries with most of the world's wealth, convened a special video conference on Sunday, following the Iranian attack on Israel. During the meeting, the members decided to use all possible channels of influence, to prevent Israel from launching a retaliatory attack against Iran. Charles Michel, President of the European Council, said that " We unanimously condemned Iran's unprecedented attack against Israel. All sides must show restraint. We will continue all our efforts to work towards de-escalation. Ending the crisis in Gaza as soon as possible, notably through an immediate ceasefire, will make a difference." Ahead...

Iran said it warned its allies and neighbors in the region 72 hours before the drone and missile attack on Israel began, the Iranian foreign minister said Sunday. "We informed them that the Islamic republic's response was legitimate and definitive," Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a televised meeting.

The USA has called for Ukraine not to attack Russian refineries despite Russia's widespread offensive against several energy facilities in Ukraine. The Department of Defense has warned that such an attack could bring another spike in fuel prices worldwide. Michaelo Podoliak, advisor to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, claimed that such facilities were legitimate military targets. In a recent interview, he also claimed that such an attack was not only legitimate but desirable on a worldwide level in order to weaken Russia's hold on the energy lobby. “Ukraine must destroy Russia's refineries. They have no impact on worldwide pricing, and are...

President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister that nothing of “value” was hit in Iran’s airborne attack Saturday and asserted American forces will not be participating in any offensive against Iran, according to a report. The president called Israel’s defense during the attacks a win — telling Netanyahu Israel’s ability to intercept nearly all of the hundreds of missiles and drones showed its military superiority, a US official told CNN. Biden also made it very clear that the US would not be engaging in any military offensive against the Islamic Republic, the senior official told the channel Israeli Defense Forces said...

As Iran’s attack against Israel plays out, critics are blaming President Joe Biden for green-lighting a threat from Iran rather than deterring it. Just months into Biden’s term, he stood on the White House lawn. He told reporters that he was “pleased Iran has continued to agree to engage in discussions, in direct discussions with us and with our partners on how we move forward and what is needed to allow us to move back.” However, nearly four years later Biden’s statement rings untrue. Instead, his failed policies and lack of dominance against Iran led to the downfall of Israel...

Israeli war cabinet approves a military response to Iran’s aggression

On Saturday’s “CNN Newsroom,” House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) stated that he believes the Biden administration will advise Israel that “they should look to de-escalate across the board where possible.” Smith also argued that the Iranian attack on Israel “underscores the need to get to a ceasefire in Gaza, to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza, and to have an endpoint to that conflict, completely admitting Israel’s right to defend itself there, without question. But things need to calm down or Israel is vulnerable in the region.” Smith said that the Iranian attack seems to be...

For the first time in the State of Israel's history, Iran has begun a direct attack on Israel, launching dozens of UAVs toward the Jewish state. At 1:43 a.m. Israel time, sirens began to wail in the central Negev region, shortly followed by other regions across the country including the Jerusalem and Dead Sea areas, Golan Heights, Gush Etzion, Hebron, and Samaria. Live updates: Sunday, 2:43 a.m.: A senior U.S. official told ABC News that Iran has launched an additional 70 missiles. Sunday, 2:36 a.m.: Israeli sources claim to Ynet that "we intercepted 99% of the Iranian response, we prepared...

Iranian authorities seized an alleged Israeli-linked cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday morning, in the latest escalation of tensions between the two countries, amid concerns of an Iranian attack in response to an airstrike on an Iranian embassy earlier this month.

This week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin all but confirmed a blockbuster report in the Financial Times from late March indicating that the Biden administration was prepared to sacrifice Ukraine’s battlefield objectives if they imperiled his own reelection prospects. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Austin scolded Ukraine for executing long-range attacks on Russian oil refineries. “Ukraine is better served in going after tactical and operational targets that can directly influence the current fight,” the Pentagon chief said. But Austin gave away the game when he fretted that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian infrastructure “could have a knock-on effect.

The US Air Force has 140 of its biggest warplanes – its heavy bombers – in active service: 76 Boeing B-52Hs, 44 Boeing B-1Bs and 20 B-2 stealth bombers built by Northrop Grumman. .. Any other air force might content itself with 140 bombers and redistribute the lost bomber’s operating budget. But the US Air Force is counting on the B-1 to play a lead role in a possible air war over the Taiwan Strait. It’s such a high priority that the service is spending millions of dollars recovering, from long-term storage, a surplus B-1 nicknamed “Lancelot” that’s been sitting...

The Interior Department on Friday finalized a rule making it more expensive for oil and gas producers to drill on federally owned lands. Several of the provisions in the rule — like raising the rent the government charges to oil companies for using its land and increasing the government’s share of the profits from that oil — were set out in law by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration will additionally make it more expensive for drillers to abandon their oil wells after use instead of cleaning them up. The administration argues that current bonding rates do not...

April 9 Letter from FERC to KRRC, ‘… Kiewit has aborted the Iron Gate Development drilling program in its entirety…’ .. This is part of a series about the Klamath Dam Removal project in Siskiyou County. The removal of dams along the Klamath River in Siskiyou County, Northern California was sold as necessary to save salmon – specifically, “to restore habitat for endangered fish.” The dams are part of the Klamath project, a series of seven dams built in the 1910’s and 1920’s in the Klamath Basin to bring electricity and agricultural water mitigation for Southern Oregon and Northern California,...

This week’s Shabbat [Parshat Tazria] will mark the first Shabbat of the month of Nissan; Pesach is the 15th of Nissan, and therefore it is appropriate to highlight the Torah’s perspective on the Exodus and the Haggadah. The fifth step of the Pesach Seder [there are 15 steps, as enumerated in the popular songs that outline the Seder’s path] is known as “Maggid\telling over,” and contains the meat and bones of the Seder. During Maggid, the Jewish Nation’s path is traced from Abraham until the Exodus [roughly 400 years], and the miracles that led to and accompanied our escaping Egyptian...

They're gonna blockade ports and shut things down all over the world. Great production values.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Wednesday denounced former President Trump’s exhortation for Congress to kill the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as “crazy and reckless” and warned there will be “blood on people’s hands” if the intelligence community’s surveillance authority expires and there’s a terrorist attack on the United States. “I think it’s crazy and reckless to not move forward with FISA. It’s our principal tool protecting us from terrorist attacks. We’re living through a time where those threats have never been higher, so it’s blinding us, it’s blinding our allies,” Barr told The Hill in an interview. “I...