https://freerepublic.com/tag/news-forum/ en-us Fri, 21 Aug 2026 12:47:51 GMT Focus Forum 15 https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392617/posts Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has warned that the phenomenon of illegal weapons in Israel goes far beyond the criminal sphere and poses a security threat. Speaking at a lecture on Thursday night, Bennett said that more than half a million illegal weapons are held by civilians, describing the situation as "a security threat of the highest order." Bennett claimed that illegal weapons are being transferred to terrorists in Judea and Samaria and to organized crime families in Israel. "This is an extremely dangerous ticking time bomb," he stressed. According to Bennett, "A security threat should and may be dealt... Arutz Sheva https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392617/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 12:47:51 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392616/posts An Alabama jury on Thursday awarded $9.25 million in damages after finding that The New York Times defamed a college basketball player by incorrectly reporting that he was at the scene of a fatal shooting in Tuscaloosa. Kai Spears, who played for the University of Alabama men's team, sued the Times in 2023 after it published a report, citing a person familiar with the investigation, that indicated he was a passenger in a car involved in the shooting. The Times reported that the person had spoken "on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters." Days later, the Times acknowledged... ESPN https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392616/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 12:39:16 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392605/posts Morgan Stanley has picked Dallas for a major expansion of its banking empire outside New York City — accelerating Wall Street’s migration to Texas following the election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, The Post has learned. The financial giant plans to relocate up to 4,800 jobs to the state by 2031, passing over Alpharetta, Georgia, according to municipal filings reviewed by The Post. The firm will anchor a new $1.3 billion, 709,000-square-foot skyscraper in the fast-growing Texas metropolis known to financiers as “Y’all Street”. The Wall Street behemoth led by CEO Ted Pick — which began exploring options outside the Big... NY Post https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392605/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:40:59 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392596/posts Police are searching for two suspects caught on video Friday violently attacking a man who works to serve the homeless in San Bernardino, sending him to the hospital. Greg Medina said he was just relaxing in his jacuzzi when he was assaulted, and the attack was completely random and unprovoked. He’s hoping someone might recognize the suspects to bring them to justice. He didn’t get a good look at them but said he believes they’re either teens or young adults. “I could have lost consciousness or I could have been hurt a lot worse and drowned,” he said. ktla https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392596/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 05:23:24 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392595/posts Democrats have largely subverted the mainstream media, reducing it to a party propaganda organ. Yet journalism will continue to be an impediment to their consolidation of power, so long as independent journalists like Nick Shirley let people know what is going on. So California came up with the Stop Nick Shirley Act in response to the political earthquake he caused by revealing Democrat-sanctioned Somali fraud in Minnesota. As California State Assemblymember Carl DeMaio observed, “If this bill becomes law, the message is clear to every journalist in California: expose corruption and you will be punished.” Democrats have crossed the Rubicon... Moonbattery https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392595/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 05:07:43 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392594/posts State Sen. Aisha Wahab won the special election Thursday to complete former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s term, overcoming more than $5 million in outside spending favoring her opponent and becoming the first Afghan American elected to Congress. Wahab widened her lead over BART Board President Melissa Hernandez to 53% to 47% in the latest returns. Wahab had 51,610 votes to Hernandez’s 45,598, an insurmountable margin with just 255 ballots left to cure. Wahab will complete Swalwell’s term, which expires in January, before facing Hernandez again Nov. 3 for a full two-year term... The race tightened dramatically after outside political groups poured... East Bay Times https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392594/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 05:01:47 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392588/posts Kathy Hochul is urging New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to devote greater attention to governing the city and less to Israel, according to an interview with The New York Times published Thursday. Hochul was asked about a video Mamdani released last month in which he acknowledged that, despite his repeated promises, he does not have the authority to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The video drew hundreds of millions of views and included accusations against Israel, including the false claim that Netanyahu is a war criminal[sic]. Mamdani has faced repeated criticism over his anti-Israel positions and statements. During his... INN https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392588/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 04:16:14 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392587/posts Earlier this summer, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that 50 organizations would no longer receive grants for the teen pregnancy prevention program (TPP), including Planned Parenthood. A federal judge has now blocked that change, though the organizations won't begin receiving funding again yet. Key Takeaways: * In June, over 50 organizations, including Planned Parenthood, were informed that they would no longer receive TPP grants due to the inclusion of "sexually explicit" content in their program materials. * Planned Parenthood and other groups have been criticized for including age-inappropriate, graphic sexual content in their sexual education programs.... live action news https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392587/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 04:02:22 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392585/posts At a conference I attended recently in DC, I had the chance to show a lot of my colleagues around the downtown monuments. For them, many from other countries, seeing the Lincoln, the Washington, the Capitol, was once in a lifetime – for me, it was Tuesday. At one point, a German in the group – fatigue in his voice – asked me, “Tell me… How can Americans keep voting for Trump?” The term Trump was shorthand for Americans’ embracing nationalism and rejecting globalism, which seems oh-so backwards to our European cousins. I think he expected me to dance around... Townhall https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392585/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 03:33:32 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392584/posts “A New York woman allegedly planned to bomb the New York State Capitol and scouted the building clad in a burka ahead of the ISIS–inspired plot, the FBI said. Jessica Bowie, 35, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York. She stands accused of planning to target the New York State Capitol and New York State Senators. Investigators learned that Bowie had intended to conduct the attack before fleeing to Syria to join others in ISIS–controlled territories,... DailyMail https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392584/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 03:30:22 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392583/posts Instead of drawing out the big mystery over how much of your money Washington wastes on improper payments, I'll just tell you right up front: In the 20 years between 2003 and 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates the total money blown on payments made in error, or in the wrong amount, or with no documentation (!!!) is $2.7 TRILLION.That's a two followed by a seven followed by 11 zeroes. That's almost double what we spent last year on Medicare/Medicaid combined, or on Social Security. It's triple last year's defense budget. It's almost triple the unconscionable amount we spent... PJ Media https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392583/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 03:22:23 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392582/posts Most of our attention here at Hot Air is devoted to politics and cultural issues, but I came across some stories this week that have me worried about something else: Earthquakes.I've been living here since 1997 and in that time I've experienced at least half a dozen earthquakes. Most of them are small. Maybe your chair rocks in place a little bit. It's unnerving, partly because you don't know how long it will last or if what you're feeling will suddenly get a lot worse. I've only experienced two earthquakes that I'd describe as scary. The worst one happened sometime... Red State https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392582/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 03:14:55 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392581/posts New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan to open five government-controlled grocery stores – one for each borough! – is going about as well as you'd expect a taxpayer-funded socialist supermarket experiment would go. Not great.On Wednesday, city officials took a group of prospective vendors to tour the site of the Harlem store, dressing them up in hardhats and high-visibility vests. Everyone was ready for a muddy-boots tour of the construction site, hyped to be wowed by this socialist utopia coming to life. They were greeted by an empty parking lot with no construction whatsoever. Even worse, there was trash... Red State https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392581/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 03:10:00 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392579/posts Total federal debt reached approximately $40.047 trillion on August 18, 2026, according to the Treasury Department’s Debt to the Penny database. That included roughly $32.27 trillion held by the public and $7.78 trillion in obligations held within the federal government.The milestone is difficult to comprehend in isolation. But the speed of the increase makes it more alarming.A decade ago, total federal debt stood near $19.4 trillion. America has therefore added more than $20 trillion to its debt burden in approximately ten years. It took the country more than two centuries to accumulate its first $20 trillion—and roughly a decade to... Global Market News https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392579/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:42:54 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392578/posts The evening of Aug. 19, 1976, was hot and muggy in Kansas City, where the Republicans were wrapping up their convention. Gerald Ford was scheduled to give his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination for what is probably the last contested party convention in American history. While exact totals varied slightly depending on uncommitted state delegations, Ford entered the convention with approximately 1,100 to 1,110 committed delegates, while his challenger Ronald Reagan held around 1,030 to 1,040. Because neither candidate had reached the 1,130-delegate threshold outright, roughly 90 to 100 uncommitted delegates held the balance of power. It had been... PJ Media https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392578/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:38:06 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392576/posts Delusional Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sought US political clout far beyond the dreams of any British royal since King George III, The Post has learned, with the Duchess of Sussex angling to take over the Senate seat held by Kamala Harris ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Weeks before Democrat Joe Biden’s win over President Donald Trump, a source says, Markle requested a sitdown with California Gov. Gavin Newsom because she “wanted to be considered to be appointed” to the seat held by Harris, which she vacated just before becoming vice president on Jan. 20, 2021. The source added... NY Post https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392576/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:29:36 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392573/posts Residents of Kyiv are sleeping once again in overcrowded metro stations or in cars in underground garages. Above, the air war is turning into a turkey-shoot. Russia is bombarding the city with ever more ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Ukraine, which had previously thwarted most such attacks with Patriot anti-missile batteries, is “going Winchester”—military jargon for running out of ammunition. Ukraine’s plight is the most acute sign of the West’s shortage of interceptors. America’s depleted arsenal also helps explain why President Donald Trump has repeatedly retreated from threats to return to war with Iran. America’s allies are alarmed. Switzerland expects its... The Economist https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392573/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:15:49 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392571/posts Secretary of State Marco Rubio outperforms Vice President JD Vance in three hypothetical 2028 presidential match-ups against some of the top-polling Democrats, according to a survey released Thursday. Pitted against former Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rubio tops both by the same 48%-43%, the Emerson College National Poll showed. Meanwhile, Vance bests the “Squad” congresswoman 46%-44% but comes up short against the failed 2024 Democratic presidential nominee by 4 percentage points. New York Post https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392571/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:08:46 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392570/posts I don’t know how familiar readers are with the term ‘accelerationism’. It is generally used to describe a tendency on the left, though is increasingly heard on the right too. The basic idea of accelerationism is that there are certain flaws in the societal structure which if pushed could bring things to their inevitable conclusion more quickly. It is why there are so many people on the left of politics who say that sustainable government spending should be discouraged. It is not just because they are economically illiterate. What they really hope is that a speeded-up financial disaster will expose... The Spectator https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392570/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:03:22 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392568/posts Peter Daszak, who as president of EcoHealth Alliance directed government funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, thanked a former Fauci aide in newly-released emails for helping shut down public speculation over the possibility that Covid-19 emerged from a lab. David Morens, a former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to hiding federal records from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests during the Covid-19 pandemic. Investigators obtained emails between Daszak and Morens in which Daszak mentioned sending bottles of wine to Morens and thanked him for his “behind the scenes shenanigans.”... © 2026 National Review https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392568/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:25:25 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392567/posts With under nine weeks to go until early voting begins in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, both Ken Paxton and James Talarico have been campaigning around the state, meeting voters everywhere from restaurants to music halls as they’ve pitched their political visions. But on television, Texans have only seen one of them. Talarico, an Austin state representative, has spent over $25 million on advertising since the general election began in late May, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact — with nearly $10.7 million deployed on broadcast and an additional $8.4 million on streaming devices. (The rest has gone to a combination... The Texas Tribune https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392567/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:22:59 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392566/posts North Korean IT workers are systematically infiltrating hundreds of global corporations, including multiple Fortune 500 companies and a U.S. government agency, by posing as remote tech freelancers. Fox News reports that federal law enforcement is warning that North Korean operatives posing as IT workers are applying for remote jobs at U.S. companies, and many are getting hired. SNIP>>> The scheme relies on advanced technical deception and physical coordination to maintain the illusion of being domestic remote workers, according to Skadden. The Federal News Network reports operatives are purchasing stolen American identities from the dark web and using artificial intelligence to... American Greatness https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392566/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:10:32 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392565/posts You’re going to see this clip and wonder what the heck a civic agent is. It’s a bit hard to explain to an American, because we don’t really have anything like this, except for maybe a “mall cop.” In Spain, it’s a public-order officer who patrols Barcelona’s streets and public spaces, dealing with nuisance behavior and calling police when things get too serious. And according to local reports out of Barcelona and a clip shared by the UK’s Tommy Robinson, an unruly migrant was confronted by these “mall cops” and things got crazy pretty quickly. One of the civic agents... Revolver News https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392565/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:08:38 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392564/posts The FReeper Canteen Presents... ~ Tell Us Your Favorite... "Stop / Go" Songs ~ Please remember that The Canteen is here to support and entertain our troops and veterans and their families, and is family friendly. Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The World !! https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392564/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:01:36 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392563/posts DEARBORN, Mich. (WXYZ) — Police in Dearborn Heights and Melvindale are investigating and reviewing evidence after fliers and business cards tied to the Ku Klux Klan were found scattered across both cities Tuesday evening. Dearborn Heights police received a call for service Tuesday after KKK fliers were thrown from a vehicle. Residents also found business cards containing KKK contact information thrown around the area. Residents say the fliers were found in yards, in streets, and at a children's playground on Robert Street, where a racial slur was also written in the wood chips. The fliers were recruiting people into the... WXYZ Detroit https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4392563/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:51:48 GMT