Free Republic

Iranian regime loyalists displayed a taped-together cardboard cutout of their new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly injured in recent strikes and has not been seen since his elevation. The makeshift stand-in appeared at a pro-regime rally in Tehran, where organizers brought the life-size cutout of Khamenei onto the stage, according to Israeli journalist Amit Segal. Regime loyalists hailed and swore allegiance to the cutout, which appeared crudely assembled and held together by strips of tape, Segal reported. Khamenei has not appeared in public or issued a statement since being selected as Iran’s new supreme leader on Sunday following...

ICBC and Agricultural Bank of China have run out of investment gold bars. And silver premiums over London spot are 13%. Comex silver contract is sinking into irrelevance. Last weekend, the US and Israel attacked Iran and the week’s news was dominated by another Middle East war. Markets’ gut reaction was to mark down investment assets and mark up dollars. Consequently, in the confusion gold and silver declined on the week as the dollar rallied. In European trade this morning gold was $5090, down $230 from last Friday’s close, and silver at $82.70 was down $11 over the same timescale....

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, reversed himself on the Senate filibuster Wednesday after years of unflinching support for the 60-vote threshold to pass most bills. Now, locked in a competitive Republican runoff for his Senate seat and eyeing President Donald Trump's endorsement, Cornyn says he'll support "whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary" to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election overhaul bill that Trump has called his No. 1 priority. Cornyn's comments are part of an op-ed he wrote in the New York Post published Wednesday, titled: "Why the SAVE Act matters more than the filibuster." The...

Three cargo ships have been hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz. The Thailand-flagged bulk carrier Mayuree Naree was struck and set on fire 11 nautical miles north of Oman, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said. Oman’s navy rescued 20 crew members who evacuated the ship in a lifeboat on Wednesday morning, while three remain missing. A second ship, the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Star Gwyneth, was hit by a projectile 50 miles north-west of Dubai. The vessel suffered hull damage but all crew members are safe. A third vessel, a Japan-flagged container ship, sustained minor damage near...

FBI warns California law enforcement of possible Iranian drone threat The FBI has alerted police departments in California to a potential threat involving drones that could be launched from vessels off the US West Coast, according to a report by ABC News. A bulletin distributed to law enforcement agencies at the end of February stated that federal authorities had obtained information indicating that Iran had expressed interest in carrying out a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles originating from an unidentified ship near the US mainland. The alert noted that as of early February 2026, Iran was allegedly considering such...

The scandal-plagued Obama Presidential Center in Chicago already stirred up plenty of controversy. Now the money trail surrounding it raises even more uncomfortable questions about how former President Barack Obama’s inner circle is cashing in while taxpayers get screwed over. New federal tax filings reveal the staggering salaries flowing through the Obama Foundation as construction of the $850 million Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park nears completion. The foundation will operate the massive 19.3-acre campus, which sits on publicly owned Chicago parkland. The project includes a museum, an athletic center, and a public library branch. It will not operate as...

🚨BREAKING UPDATE: Sarasota woman was found guilty in federal court of making TikTok videos calling for Donald Trump supporters to be shot on sight. Desiree Doreen Segari, 41, was convicted of interstate communication of a threat to injure. In one video Segari said, “so if we all get our guns and use our second amendment right … and you see somebody with a MAGA hat, ‘pew pew’ that’s what we do, that’s the way, it’s the only way.” FAFO! She faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in federal prison. Her sentenci is scheduled for May 5.

Katelin Holloway and Ben Ramirez thought they had found their forever home when they purchased a spacious North Beach property for $4.75 million in 2021 — a four-story residence with five bedrooms, sweeping skyline views and room for their growing family. Instead, the couple is now facing the possibility that the house must be carved back into four separate apartments after city officials determined the building was improperly converted from a multi-unit property years before they bought it, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. SNIP According to city officials and tenant advocates, the building had previously been altered from a...

Explanation: Is this a cosmic monster ready to devour an unsuspecting galaxy? Thankfully, that is not the case. The red “monster” shown in the featured image is Cometary Globule CG 4, 1,300 light-years away in the Constellation Puppis. CG 4 is a molecular cloud, where hydrogen becomes cold enough to form molecules that can be brought together by gravity to create stars. The shape of CG 4 resembles that of a comet, but its head is 1.5 light-year in diameter and its tail is 8 light-years long; for comparison, the distance from the Earth to the sun is only 8...

The government has approved a request from the police to ban the Al Quds Day march in London on Sunday to prevent “serious public disorder” given the conflict in the Middle East, the home secretary has said. The Metropolitan Police asked for the ban saying it was concerned about the high number of protesters and counterprotesters, adding the march organizers were “supportive of the Iranian regime” . The Islamic Human Rights Commission, who organize the annual march, insist it is a peaceful, pro-Palestinian event. It says a static protest will take place instead. It is the first time a protest...

Two people have been taken to hospital overnight after an alleged machete attack in the heart of Melbourne's CBD, days after a fatal stabbing in a separate incident in the city's outer north. Police allege a 25-year-old Manor Lakes man armed with a machete attacked a man and a woman near the corner of Queen and Flinders streets just after 2:30am on Monday. The woman in her 20s was transported to hospital in a serious condition with upper body injuries. The man, believed to be in his 20s, was treated for mid-body injuries and transported to hospital in a stable...

According to a statement released by Saarland University, repeated lines, notches, dots, and crosses etched on Paleolithic artifacts some 40,000 years ago exhibit the same level of complexity and information density as proto-cuneiform script, which emerged around 3000 B.C. Linguist Christian Bentz of Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin used computers to analyze the statistical properties of more than 3,000 signs on 260 Paleolithic artifacts. “We hypothesized that the early proto-cuneiform script would be more similar to the writing systems of today, especially due to their relative proximity in time,”...

A photo taken on October 25, 2025, shows the controlled demolition of the second of the cooling towers of the decommissioned nuclear power plant Gundremmingen in Gundremmingen, southern Germany. KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND / AFP. To simultaneously obliterate Germany’s nuclear sector and to cut off energy ties with Russia wasn’t simply foolish—it was self-sabotage of the highest and most unforgivable order. Europe is once again readying itself for the bitter pill of mass inflation. International energy markets are facing one-in-a-generation levels of disarray following the launch, by the United States and Israel, of Operation Epic Fury against Iran. At the time of...

Schimer just said ICE will kick 10's of BILLIONS off voter rolls. This will be done by ICE then he said DOGE. Oh Chucky..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgqKw-p0dHQ

Iran cannot participate in the 2026 World Cup following airstrikes against the country by the United States and Israel, the Iranian sports minister said Wednesday. "Given that this corrupt government assassinated our leader, under no circumstances can we participate in the World Cup," Ahmad Donyamali reportedly told Iranian state television. - President Trump says Iran 'welcome' at World Cup, says Infantino - Iraq coach Arnold asks FIFA to reschedule its WC playoff Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the first day of attacks. He has since been succeeded by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei. Iran was due to...

According to a statement released by the University of Gdansk, evaluation of the remains of people who lived in what is now north-central Poland between 4100 and 1230 B.C. has revealed how their diets changed from the Neolithic period to the Bronze Age. Using radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, and stable isotope measurements of carbon and nitrogen, a team led by Łukasz Pospieszny of the University of Gdansk suggests that Corded Ware communities of the late Neolithic period herded their animals in forests and wet river valleys. After several hundred years, however, their diet began to resemble that of nearby farmers,...

Not satisfied with being commander-in-chief, Donald Trump has become the White House’s very own shoe salesman. The US president has been buying his favourite shoes for his staff so frequently that they have become the unofficial White House uniform. One female White House official told the Wall Street Journal: “All the boys have them. It’s hysterical because everybody’s afraid not to wear them.” Mr Trump has fallen in love with Florsheim, a brand that sells some pairs for as little as $49.90 (£37.27) – a far cry from his expensive Brioni suits. The president has been buying the shoes for...

It’s the country of Magna Carta and the great English liberties. It gave us the Mother of Parliaments and established the largest and most benign empire the world has ever seen. It held out alone against the Nazis, under an inspiring leader who vowed that “we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” And after the war it became America’s partner in a Special Relationship that ultimately brought down the Soviet Union. But now?...

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. will get its first oil refinery in 50 years, funded by investments from Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries. “THIS IS A HISTORIC $300 BILLION DOLLAR DEAL — THE BIGGEST IN U.S. HISTORY,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He thanked India’s largest privately held energy company, Reliance Industries, “for this tremendous Investment.” Reliance owns the world’s largest oil refinery in Jamnagar, India, and has a market capitalization of $206 billion, according to LSEG data. The new refinery, located at the port of Brownsville in Texas, will “strengthen our National...

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a self-styled "working class" Washington Democrat, claims she worked in an "iPhone case factory" in college to pay her tuition after her father cut her off because she wouldn’t go to church. But the shop was actually a boutique artisanal workshop that made wooden, hand-crafted cases, according to her former roommate. Gluesenkamp Perez has repeatedly said she juggled the "factory" gig alongside her jobs as a nanny and a barista while attending Reed College, an elite and expensive private school in Portland, Ore. But no major phone case manufacturers operated in the area at the time—as...