Free Republic

At least seven wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack... The US Justice Department backing down on a claim...government agencies were hacked by Chinese state-sponsored hackers... The transcript of former banking CEO Jes Staley's Jeffrey Epstein interview... deadly Israeli attack in the city of Jenin in the "West Bank"... In Ecuador former President Lenin Moreno found guilty of corruption... United States planning to cut off military aid to the Kurdish forces... Fitch Ratings Service keeping France at an A+... In the UK one person killed and six others injured when a sign fell... US House will meet next week to vote...

A text message sent by Vice President JD Vance on behalf of the Republican National Committee urged people not to donate if they couldn't afford groceries. The fundraising text sent in the Vice President's name told recipients: 'If you can't give right now, don't. Groceries cost what they cost.'*** The appeal then offered an unusually frank admission about the Republican Party's finances. 'Now the part I owe you honesty about,' the message said. 'The Republican National Committee needs money. That's true of every party committee, and anyone who tells you otherwise is doing the exact thing I just apologized for....

China warned that it would “take all necessary measures” and retaliate against the US if any of its companies are included in the Trump administration’s new secondary sanctions targeting Iran.Companies based in Hong Kong and mainland China were among the entities targeted by the US after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “Operation Economic Outcast” on Monday to further isolate Iran. The US, however, stopped short of listing large Chinese financial institutions, with Beijing — Iran’s largest oil buyer — warning that it will do whatever it takes to protect its economic interests. *** “China has made clear on many occasions...

I'm getting a lot of scathing pushback calling JD Vance a leftist so I'm laying out why it's true in a straight-forward, semi-nuanced way. It is not me making the claim, the following is what Vance has personally stated he believes in. 1. Vance calls himself a post-liberal. Post-liberalism rejects free-market capitalism and individualism in favor of the government securing economic and social well-being (social welfare). The counter-argument is to recognize the responsibility of individuals for their own welfare (food, shelter, well-being). 2. Vance says he believes in Hamiltonian economics. Hamiltonian economics has shared commonality with modern left-of-center ideology primarily...

The military has lost 25% of its fleet over the past five months The U.S. has lost 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones, worth at least $1.3 billion, since the start of its war on Iran, the Washington Post reported Friday. The drones can cost between $30 and $50 million each, depending on their sensor and weapons payload. The U.S. military has lost roughly 25% of its pre-war fleet in the past five months. A defense official told the Washington Post that some of the drones were not shot down by Iranian forces, but instead were lost after their communications link to...

President Trump confirmed Wednesday he plans to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un later this year, the third sitdown between the two across the commander in chief’s two terms.*** “I get along with him, and you know what? The fact that I get along with him-that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that Kim has “57 very powerful nuclear weapons.”Should have never allowed it to happen,” the president added. “They should have never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it. But he’s got them.” Past...

President Trump suffered a pair of losses in Florida’s primaries and another in Wyoming on Tuesday as three of his endorsed candidates were defeated in key primaries, showing the limits of his influence with sagging approval numbers. Embattled Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) lost his chance at renomination against former TV reporter Ryan Elijah, who appears on track to win by double digits. Mills has been among the president’s strongest supporters in Congress since he was first elected in 2022, but he has faced mounting controversy amid a House Ethics Committee probe into his conduct. The committee has for months been...

Second Amendment advocates scored a significant legal victory Thursday after the Justice Department declined to immediately appeal a federal court ruling that struck down longstanding federal permitting requirements for suppressors and short-barreled firearms. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of Texas ruled that key provisions of the National Firearms Act could no longer be justified under Congress' taxing authority after Republicans eliminated the law's $200 tax on suppressors and short-barreled rifles last year. The Trump administration allowed Hendrix's order to take effect after midnight Thursday instead of seeking an immediate stay or filing an appeal. The decision marks a major...

Reading FR then flicking to Twitter/X is sometimes like night and day. There's a lot of dissent there among those I happen to follow (NOT Lefitsts or anything like that) regarding: Israel, Iran War, foreign policy and the Administration generally. A lot of hot topics that get discussed here all the time and former Representatives or officials are leading the charge: MTG, Kent, Tucker Carlson and Massie the most prominent with many large accounts echoing them. It's clear to me this is more than just a few rebels who have no influence or standing in fact MTG says in one...

President Trump on Saturday night said he agreed to halt a planned attack against Iran – after the Islamic Republic and other Middle Eastern countries agreed to the framework of a peace deal.“The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The president said Iran and other governments in the region asked the US “to hold off any attack” because “the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.” According to Trump, the proposed...

Two-thirds of Americans believe the war in Iran has not been worth fighting. A new AP-NORC poll found that roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war that began Feb. 28 is not worthwhile. The sentiment is shared by the vast majority of Democrats (87%) and independents (68%), as well as 37% of Republicans. The AP-NORC poll, conducted July 23-27, surveyed 1,165 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

In August 2024, candidate Donald Trump told a rally crowd that Joe Biden was "using the strategic reserves, which is meant for military, which is meant for war," and pledged that "We have to fill up the strategic reserves immediately." Two years later, with the United States locked in a protracted conflict with Iran, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is doing the opposite of filling up. According to figures circulated by Geiger Capital and Hedgeye, the SPR has fallen roughly 25% in recent months and now sits at its lowest level in about 43 years, covering an estimated 16 days of...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his last in-person meeting at the White House, reportedly sold President Donald Trump on starting a war with Iran. Now, the GOP's America First wing fears he's about to pitch the president on ramping up attacks."I think all of President Trump's most ardent non-'Israel First' supporters are furious," said former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. "Netanyahu has had twice as many visits to the White House in 18 months as Churchill had in all of World War II — with every one of them a disaster for America First."The two men are set...

The Pentagon's "Department of War" rebrand ignited debate over cost, psychology, strategy and America's military identity.When workers at the Pentagon quietly removed “Department of Defense” plaques and replaced them with new bronze signs reading “Department of War,” the reaction was immediate. Photos of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth installing a 60-pound “Department of War” plaque spread across social media within hours. Supporters praised the symbolism. Critics argued it sent the wrong signal to allies and adversaries.But behind the headlines, the change raises a deeper question: How much power does a name really have? And when it comes to America’s most important...

The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East recommended ending the bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz after concluding it reached the limits of its effectiveness, a recommendation that helped shape President Donald Trump's decision to pause strikes against Iran, Axios reported Sunday.Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, advised Pentagon leaders, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the White House last week that two weeks of sustained airstrikes had weakened Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping through the strategic waterway, multiple sources familiar with the discussions said.His assessment, combined with advice from other senior military officials,...

Republican Steve Hilton launched his general election campaign for California governor Wednesday with a gambit to win over left-leaning voters who dominate the state: Even if they loathe President Donald Trump, he said, they should consider voting for him. During an event in Los Angeles ... he vowed to bring the price of gasoline down to $3 a gallon, about half the current cost, cut residents’ utility bills in half, now among the nation’s highest, and eliminate state income taxes on the first $150,000 in earnings... In his campaign remarks and ads he took out in leading newspapers throughout the...

I was only a year old when the UK's deadliest terror attack shocked the world. In December 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 people on board as well as 11 on the ground. I was a teenager by the time Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing in 2001 and, when he later died, I thought that was largely the end of the story. It wasn't. The case still rumbles on and, later this year, a man suspected of making the bomb which blew up the plane, Abu...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asked members of Congress in a letter on Wednesday to give Amtrak the green light to rename Penn Station, setting up the possibility the nation’s busiest train hub could be rechristened after President Donald Trump. The federal government has led the effort to rebuild the dilapidated station since last year, when Trump stripped control of the project from the MTA and turned it over to Amtrak. White House officials have since floated the idea of renaming Penn Station, which is owned by federally run Amtrak, after Trump. Duffy’s request came in a letter to Senate...

Is VP Vance the front man in a coup d’état? Once upon a time––in 2017, according to VP JD Vance––a state senator from Ohio met an already-arrived conservative commentator and they had what is commonly known as chemistry. They connected. They liked each other. They agreed about major issues, except for one. The state senator––that would be Mr. Vance––loathed President Trump and spared no invective to describe him as “America’s Hitler” and “Unfit for our nation’s highest office,” and “Trump is cultural heroin,” and "I'm a Never Trump guy…" But the conservative commentator––that would be Tucker Carlson––touted POTUS 45 relentlessly...

Journalist and activist Laura Loomer decided to visit Ukraine for herself this week, after years of criticizing America's involvement in the conflict. Her trip culminated in a visit to the presidential palace and a nearly hour-long exclusive interview with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 'I really wanted to see it up close and find out, wow, you know, is this a country full of Nazis? Are they laundering our taxpayer dollars to Democrats? You know, is Zelenskyy a cokehead?' she said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail while she was in Kiev.