Free Republic

A majority of Americans disapprove of how President Trump has handled the U.S. conflict with Iran, even as he touts a new agreement to end the war, according to polling data released Thursday. The Associated Press-NORC survey, which was conducted after the president called off threats to escalate the conflict and shortly before he officially signed a framework agreement with Iran, found that 65 percent of U.S. adults disapprove of Trump’s handling of the issue. Democrats and independent Americans drove down his approval rating, while only 28 percent of Republican respondents cast a negative view on the president’s job performance...

Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi has reportedly been sentenced to 74 lashes after performing without a hijab in a livestreamed YouTube concert. The Guardian reported that Ahmadi and eight members of the production team, including musicians, were sentenced by a criminal court in Qom province.

It’s abundantly clear that religion stood at the center of the Civil War for both sides. Both North and South looked to God for meaning, and each side believed—that God was on its side... The new Confederate Constitution, adopted on February 8, 1861, officially declared its Christian identity, “invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God.” Southern leaders chose as their national motto Deo Vindice (“God will avenge”.) Confederate President Jefferson Davis proclaimed that the time had come “to recognize our dependence upon God … and supplicate his merciful protection.” This national acknowledgment of religious dependence, as the South frequently...

President Donald Trump told NBC News that he asked Israel to agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah, after deadly Israeli attacks in Lebanon rattled planned Iran peace talks. Israel and militant group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire Friday, after a deadly escalation between the two in Lebanon looked set to derail Washington-Tehran peace talks in Switzerland. President Donald Trump told NBC News in a phone call Friday afternoon that he spoke with Israel and asked them to agree to a ceasefire. “It’s a positive,” he said, adding: “It’s a little icing on the cake.” He declined to specify whether he...

This video discusses a recent ruling by a federal judge in the District of Minnesota regarding the criminal case of Don Lemon and his co-defendants, who are charged in connection with an incident at a Christian church on January 18, 2026 (2:55). The judge, Douglas L. Mo, denied several motions filed by the defense, delivering a significant procedural defeat to Lemon and his co-accused (0:22, 2:05). Key rulings by Judge Mo include: Denial of access to grand jury materials: The defense sought to pierce the secrecy of the grand jury proceedings, alleging prosecutorial misconduct and misstatements of law. The court...

Four Israeli soldiers and dozens of people in Lebanon were killed during fighting, authorities said TEL AVIV—Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a renewed ceasefire Friday, U.S. and Israeli officials said, after fighting intensified between the two sides and threatened to derail peace talks between the U.S. and Iran.The overnight strikes marked one of the most serious escalations in Lebanon since a ceasefire in April, after the U.S. and Iran reached an agreement earlier in the week to stop the fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Strikes had mostly subsided on Friday but some clashes continued after the fresh ceasefire...

Nigel Farage says he is disappointed with Reform UK's performance in the Makerfield by-election, as he blamed his party's defeat on a desire among voters to eject Sir Keir Starmer from Downing Street. The Reform leader claimed frustration with the embattled prime minister had driven Andy Burnham's "emphatic" Labour victory over his party's candidate, Rob Kenyon, who finished more than 9,000 votes behind. He also conceded his party had also lost votes to right-wing rival Restore Britain, founded by ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe, which finished third in a breakthrough night for the fledgling party. He issued a plea for Restore...

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Belarus has a week to dismantle relay equipment used to direct Russian drone strikes against targets inside Ukraine. If not, Kyiv will deal with the problem itself. During a joint press conference on Friday with Honduran President Nasry Asfura, Mr. Zelenskyy said he was skeptical of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s claims that he didn’t want to be drawn into the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. “He should be honest, at least to his people, because it is not he who can be drawn into the war — it is his entire country that can be drawn...

Eric Daugherty@EricLDaugh·7h🚨 WOW! Major Capers just went maximum selfless patriot mode after President Trump gave him the Medal of Honor"I can't say I'm happy to be here because this award belongs to a lot of young men who followed me and died in battlefields around this world for a country that we honor this flag.""There's no real satisfaction in getting a medal when I've lost so much.""We're one unit. When one falls, somebody else has to replace that one, that person who fell.""I feel honored to have the support that I find today. I'm honored. And I give gratitude to...

LEESBURG, Fla. - An elderly Florida man was arrested for allegedly street racing in Lake County, deputies said. When confronted with the accusation, William Bosworth, 85, responded that he was just "having a little ride in my favorite car." Now, Bosworth faces two charges for driving in a vehicle race and dangerous excessive speeding. A Lake County Sheriff's Office deputy spotted two vehicles appearing to be street racing on U.S. Highway 27 and County Road 33 in Leesburg around 11:40 p.m., June 12. A radar showed a red corvette traveling at 125 miles per hour and a gray sports car...

[Catholic Caucus] US Cardinal: Leo XIV Deepens Francis' Outreach to HomosexualsThe homosexual group Outreach, founded and led by the homosexual activist James Martin SJ, organises its annual conference on June 19-21 at the Jesuit-run Georgetown University. From 2021 to 2024, Francis sent an endorsement message.In 2026, two US Cardinals support the homosexual conference. Outreach published endorsement letters by Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington and Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago (below).Cardinal McElroy wrote on June 19 that he is “delighted” to welcome the homosexual group in Washington, adding: “For I know that the Holy Spirit will be profoundly present in our...

Do you want to post a photo or meme or other graphic image in your comment but don't know how and don't want to learn HTML? Do you want to make your comment more awesome with BOLD or Italics or underscore or strike-thru and don't want to deal with HTML tags? Do you want to post a clickable link to a page but don't know how? How about numbered or bulleted lists, tables, indented quotations, etc.?? Here's all you need: Firefox browser (free for Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc.) (also Chrome/Edge/Safari) Greasemonkey (a script manager for Firefox; TamperMonkey for Chrome/Edge/Safari) The...

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that his ​country does not support the creation of so-called "return ‌hubs" for migrants in third countries, questioning their efficacy, though adding that he respected countries that want to set up ​such hubs. "We are in favour of a ​more effective return policy, but ... I have never ⁠seen a return centre in a third country that ​actually works," Macron said, speaking in Brussels as a ​two-day EU summit concluded. The European Parliament earlier this week approved a migration overhaul to speed up deportations and allow offshore detention ​centres, a move critics say...

You know I love milk just as much as the next American. I'm not sure I love it this much, though. From Sentient: Although much of the technology remains speculative, the Russian company Neiry claims to have directly implanted neural devices in the brains of dairy cows to stimulate lactation on demand. ‘When a cow's appetite decreases, the system automatically adjusts the neuromodulation mode to restore it,' the company said in a September 2025 announcement that it had surgically placed electrodes into five cows. ‘The stimulator's electronic unit is attached to the back of the animal's head, with electrodes reaching...

In a few weeks, President Trump plans to issue 250 pardons to mark America’s 250th birthday. Four names belong near the top of that list: John Miller, David Cari, Dennis Spaulding, and Jason Zullo, all former East Haven, Connecticut, police officers whom the Obama Justice Department turned into federal felons for simply doing their jobs.

The wreck of a Japanese prison ship that was sunk by U.S. warplanes and went down with more than 1,000 Allied prisoners of war in 1944 has been discovered in the Philippines. The vessel was one of the notorious "hellships" used by the Japanese to ferry POWs between work camps. Many of the prisoners who died when the ship sank had worked on the infamous Burma-Thailand "Death Railway." "Sadly, a lot of these prisoner transport ships were sunk by the Allies," expedition leader and American TV show host Josh Gates told Live Science. "The ships were painted to just look...

Juneteenth President Biden made June 19th a Federal Holiday on June 17, 2021. The slave owners in Galveston, Texas, deliberately hid the news of the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1865, from enslaved people to maintain forced labor. There was no one to enforce the law until Major General Granger arrived on June 19 with 2,000 Union Troops to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation for enslaved people. I wondered why the Democrats celebrate an event that paints them in a negative light. A National Holiday commemorating the Republican defeat of the Democratic institution of slavery? I found out why the Democrats...

🚀 The Q1 Rocket Report is out. SpaceX's market share of launch (both by kg to orbit and by number of spacecraft launched) is now 99% in the U.S. and 86% globally. China, Russia, and "other U.S." dropped from the prior quarter. Number of spacecraft launched grew 35% YOY.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a three-year-old boy was left with critical injuries after ending up in a zoo's crocodile enclosure. Cambridgeshire Police said it was called to Johnsons of Old Hurst, near Huntingdon, at 13:24 BST. Andy Johnson, who runs the zoo, told the BBC his wife, Tracey, jumped into the enclosure to try to help the boy. A 30-year-old man from Norfolk has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and officers added they do not believe the man and child were known to each other. The force said it was investigating...

One of 15 Minnesotans charged with conspiring against ICE officers turned herself into officials Wednesday morning. Federal officials arrested most of the defendants Tuesday and they had their first appearance in court for efforts to “violently oppose immigration law enforcement." U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen had called the defendants yet to be detained "fugitives at-large." But one of them, Natasha Rakotz, denies the charges — and the label. “I think all of this is absolutely ridiculous. I am not a violent person. I've never been violent. I've never had trouble with the law,” she said. “The only thing I did was...