Free Republic

Baluchistan is a restive region shared by Iran and Pakistan where security forces on both sides of the border have for years battled militant groups but which now risks being the subject of escalating tensions between the neighbours. Both Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan and Pakistan's western province of Balochistan are the most impoverished regions of their respective countries, vast and arid provinces constantly battling drought, with rampant unemployment. They are home to the Baluch people, who number overall an estimated 10 million, the majority of whom live in Pakistan including also in the Sindh province, with several million in...

Several explosions were heard in southeastern Iran on Thursday morning, according to local media. The Mehr news agency reported that several people were injured in an attack by drones and missiles. According to the report, the attack was carried by the Pakistani army in Iranian territory, and follows an Iranian attack in Pakistani territory...

33-year-old Roya Heshmati accused by Tehran’s judiciary of having ‘encouraged permissiveness’ after violating mandatory dress code in public... TEHRAN — Iranian authorities have whipped a woman 74 times for “violating public morals” and fined her for not covering her head, the judiciary said. “The convicted, Roya Heshmati, encouraged permissiveness [by appearing] disgracefully in busy public places in Tehran,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said late on Saturday. “Her penalty of 74 strokes of the lash was carried out in accordance with the law and with sharia,” and “for violating public morals,” Mizan said. Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw identified Heshmati as...

President Trump posted a statement on Truth Social Sunday night calling on Joe Biden to fire Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for “improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty.” Austin, 70, has served as secretary of Defense since the start of the Biden administration in January, 2021. Austin has come under fire after the Pentagon revealed Friday he had been secretly seriously ill in an ICU since Monday without informing Joe Biden, White House staff or Congress for three or four days, respectively. Austin’s job is reportedly safe for now, with Biden having spoken with him by phone on Saturday....

The number of German women who've been raped by migrants is staggering.. Some years ago, during a Sky News investigation near Johannesburg, South Africa, an unscientific survey was conducted that included 38 African men. Astonishingly, 28 of these men openly confessed to raping a woman. The Sky News reporter could not contain his shock, as these men flippantly described their attacks on women, completely unable to comprehend what “rape trauma” was. ... Regrettably, both the US and Europe are welcoming this type of danger into their countries through mass migration and illegal wide-open border policies. ... Below is another example...

[Make sure to read Daniel Greenfield’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]After Biden’s withdrawal, the fighting ended in Afghanistan and moved into Europe.Even before the Taliban takeover, a massive traffic in migrants and drugs flowed over the ‘Balkan Route’ that took Afghans into Iran, Turkey and then Eastern Europe. One of the biggest holes in Europe’s armor was the former Yugoslavia, illegally invaded and partitioned by the Clinton administration, with a large Muslim population in Bosnia and heavy criminal organizations across the former republic that tie together the Russian mob, local gangs,...

California Golden Bears senior center Fardaws Aimaq was seen confronting a fan following Monday's SoCal Challenge tournament game, but only after he was allegedly on the receiving end of racial verbal abuse. The incident took place after Cal's last-second defeat to UTEP in San Juan Capistrano, California. Aimaq was seen walking into the crowd, where he got into a heated confrontation with the fan. 'You wanna talk? You wanna talk?' Aimaq asked before sticking his finger in the significantly smaller man's face. Someone is then heard telling Aimaq: 'Grow up, dude. That's why you lose.' But on Wednesday, Cal coach...

In a poignant and critical statement, “Brock Michael,” a former soldier of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, has expressed his profound disappointment and frustration with the Biden regime. Michael, who recently concluded his four-year active duty, shared his grievances in a now-deleted video during his gear turn-in day, a standard procedure for departing military personnel. Michael’s primary contention revolves around being charged an exorbitant amount for military equipment he was ordered to abandon during the tumultuous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. The charges, totaling $3,561, come as a shock to the soldier, especially considering the circumstances under which...

A United States Army soldier, who recently separated from the service, spoke out against the Biden administration and claimed he was ordered pay for military gear that he was forced to leave behind during the chaotic and deadly Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021. According to Newsweek, the former soldier shared his story Monday on TikTok, claiming that it was the official gear turn-in day after completing roughly four years of active duty service in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. The soldier, who is known as “Brock” on TikTok, said the gear turn-in process made him want to “holler,” “scream,” and “yell.”...

McMaster had purged Derek Harvey, one of the NSC's best people on the Middle East, for trying to fire Obama holdovers. "In the late 1980s, Harvey traveled throughout Iraq by taxicab—500 miles, village to village—interviewing locals, sleeping on mud floors with a shower curtain for a door. He [was] full of questions, intensely curious and entirely nonthreatening. After the 1991 Gulf War, when the CIA was predicting the inevitable fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Harvey, then a major, insisted that Hussein would survive because members of the Sunni community knew their fortunes were tied to his. He was right....

Democrats across Congress are calling on President Biden to allow Palestinians entry into the U.S. on humanitarian grounds as war drags on in Gaza. Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., together with Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Was., led a letter of 103 colleagues to the president asking him to grant the Palestinian territories Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and/or authorize Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Palestinians already living in the U.S. The TPS program allows those from war-torn or crisis-wracked countries to legally live and work in the U.S., but does not give them permanent residency. It allows...

Watching the horrors unfold in Israel would be hard for anyone, but it has to be especially difficult for leaders like Mike Pompeo, who, as a member of the Trump administration, worked to ensure nightmares like this never happened. Three years removed from the White House, the world is a different place than it was when the 45th president was in power — and Americans aren’t the only ones who feel it.

Bush dinner tastes sour for Obama - PMO decision to entertain former President causes hurt in Washington K.P. NAYAR Washington, Oct. 24: Preparations for Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington on November 24 have begun on a negative signal to the Obama administration with a decision by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to host former President George W. Bush for dinner at Singh’s residence at the end of this month. Bush is visiting New Delhi on October 30 and 31 at the invitation of an Indian newspaper and will speak at a conference organised in New Delhi on October 31 on...

John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), issued his latest report ... revealed the United States and its allies have supported the Afghan economy with “cash shipments” averaging $80 million that “arrive in Kabul every 10-14 days” ever since the Taliban takeover and President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal in 2021. The U.S. has sent over $11 billion in assistance to Afghanistan and Afghan refugees since then. ... SIGAR did not wade into the argument about the fungibility of foreign aid money that has raged ever since the Biden administration paid a $6 billion ransom to Iran for...

Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 3:25 PM Glenn Beck opened the first hour of his three-hour show today by calling attention to a plan by extreme leftists to bring disruption to daily life in Washington, D.C. during October. (It is presumed that the mostly white “duuuude, let's like protest” crowd in October will not have the level of equal-opportunity courage require to venture toward creating chaos in predominantly-black areas of predominantly-black Washington, D.C.) Beck, who for much of the previous two weeks, was in Israel as part of his “Restoring Courage” solidarity event, started his show by saying “There’s a disturbing...

[Make sure to read Robert Spencer’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]Many people are seeing the war between Israel and Hamas as an apocalyptic showdown between good and evil, and there is good reason to see it that way. And as has so often been the case, Donald Trump enunciated what many others were thinking but didn’t dare to say.Trump: “The fight between Israel and Hamas is between civilization and savagery, between good and evil. There is no comparison between a group that worships death and a group that cherishes life. Every...

Pakistan gives last warning to undocumented immigrants to leave, in Chaman PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Thousands of people swamped Pakistan's main northwestern border crossing seeking to cross into Afghanistan on Thursday, a day after the government's deadline expired for undocumented foreigners to leave or face expulsion. Pakistani authorities began rounding up undocumented foreigners, most of them Afghans, hours before Wednesday's deadline. More than a million Afghans could have to leave or face arrest and forcible expulsion as a result of the ultimatum delivered by the Pakistan government a month ago.

Mounting evidence Taliban benefits from aid dollars. The United States and other international donors pump around $80 million in aid to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan every two weeks, in the face of mounting evidence that the terror group steals this cash through fraudulent nonprofits and other means, according to a government watchdog.

A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.3 at 03:36 UTC (08:06 local time) on October 15, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 8 km (5 miles). This region of Afghanistan was hit by a total 4 of M6.3 earthquakes (USGS) since October 7 when twin M6.3s killed more than 2 400 people. The epicenter was located 30.2 km (18.7 miles) NNW of Herāt (population 574 300), 41.2 km (25.6 miles) N of Chahār Burj (population 11 935), 44.7 km (27.8 miles) NE of Zindah Jān (population 10 104), Herat, Afghanistan. There were no immediate...

In Miami this evening 200 Pro-Palestinian demonstrators faced off...At least four of the Palestinian protesters arrested... Speaking tonight Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu... Saudi Arabia is freezing talks with the US on normalizing relations with Israel... Russia proposing a resolution at the UN Security Council calling for a cease-fire... A New Hampshire college student who threatened Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida entering into a plea agreement... Ratings agency Moody's postponing a decision on Israel's credit... Tonight in Israel an unidentified object shot down in northern Israel... In Japan the government going to court to requesting dissolution of the Unification...