Free Republic

United States President Barack Obama has formally accused his Russian counterpart of violating a 1987 nuclear weapons treaty, the White House said on Tuesday. Pres. Obama wrote Russia’s Vladimir Putin, White House press secretary John Earnest said during a routine briefing Tuesday afternoon, informing him that the US has determined that Russia has violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a pact signed by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev nearly 30 years ago. Hours earlier on Monday evening, the New York Times reported that the Obama administration would accuse Russia of violating the agreement upon completion of a Department of...

GAZA CITY — Israel’s aerial assaults on targets in Gaza broadened on Tuesday, with barrages that destroyed Hamas’s media offices, the home of a top leader and what Palestinians said was a devastating hit on the only electricity plant, plunging the enclave of 1.7 million into deeper deprivation with no power, running water or sewage treatment. The intensified assaults on the battle’s 22nd day came as diplomacy toward a cease-fire sputtered amid apparent confusion and mixed signals. Israel’s military made clear it had widened the scope of the bombing campaign in Gaza to hit the political structures of Hamas and...

Pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine reportedly have suffered their biggest battlefield setbacks in months as the U.S. and European countries prepare to ramp up pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin by imposing more sanctions against Moscow later this week. The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukraine army forces had made rapid gains near the site where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed July 17 and were apparently trying to split the territory held by the rebels into two parts between the major cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Officials on both sides of the fighting also told the Journal that the Ukraine...

The shooting down of MH17 in Ukraine’s civil war is a terrible event. However, the American media and government grossly misrepresent the USA’s role in creating the current situation, and coverage of Ukraine does credit to ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Reporting is dominated by the usual suspects from the Brookings Institution, etc. spouting jingoistic nonsense. Yes, there is significant history there, including a murky, amateurish, attempt to poison former President Victor Yushchenko with TCDD (a dioxin) in 2004 by unidentified parties. This sort of thing is a sign of the overall situation. Let’s start with how all US media refer to...

In the mid-1990s, when the collapse of the Mexican economy produced a wave of illegal immigration to Arizona, I did volunteer work at a Phoenix school that was struggling to meet the needs of a few hundred Mexican children who spoke only Spanish. Even as I sought to help ease the transition for both sides, I thought it would be better for everyone if the influx subsided. That explains my contradictory reactions of appreciation for and disagreement with George Will' s open-arms pronouncement on "Fox New Sunday" regarding Central Americans streaming across the Mexican border into Texas. It is burning...

Emirates Airline will stop flying over Iraq to protect against the threat of Islamic militants on the ground. The airline told the BBC it was taking "precautionary measures" and "working on alternative routing plans for flights using Iraqi airspace". The move follows the Malaysian Airlines' Flight MH17 disaster. MH17 was shot down while flying over Ukraine. Emirates said it is already re-routing some flights. It will take a few days for the re-routing to be completed, the airline added. "We are closely monitoring the situation along with international agencies, and will never compromise the safety of our customers and crew,"...

In case you’ve been wondering why Democrats have been pounding the idea so hard that this is a “refugee” crisis at the border, not an “illegal immigration” crisis, here’s what happens when people are asked which statement comes closest to their view:In fact, under current U.S. law, the kids don’t qualify as “refugees.” That’s one of the sticking points in the White House’s proposal to send envoys to Honduras and start processing asylum applications there: How can we grant “refugee” status to someone who’s fleeing street gangs, not racial/religious/political persecution? If this result is accurate, the public doesn’t much...

MEXICO CITY – Gov. Jerry Brown suggested Monday that Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s ordering of National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to address the surge in border crossings is misguided, urging politicians instead to heed the “religious call … to welcome the stranger” in addressing the crisis. “This is a human problem, and it has been the religious call of all religions to welcome the stranger, and it’s in that spirit that I believe the clergy can call the United States, Mexico and all the players to perhaps a higher response than might otherwise happen,” Brown said on the...

A top Israeli official wants President Barack Obama to stop meddling with the Jewish state during its conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Speaking to Israel’s Army Radio, Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel criticized Obama telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there should be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “Leave us alone,” Ariel told Army Radio, directing his words at Obama. “Go focus on Syria.” Obama spoke with Netanyahu Sunday about the rising number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the worsening humanitarian crisis. “Building on Secretary Kerry’s efforts, the President made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an...

Tuesday, July 29 15:20 GMT: Kiev is ready for a cease-fire “now,” US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed, following a meeting with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Washington. Kerry added that President Petro Poroshenko is also ready to start talks with the militia in the southeast of the country. 15:06 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a telephone conversation with US State Secretary John Kerry has urged Washington to influence Kiev to achieve a prompt ceasefire and to start negotiations with southeast Ukraine. Lavrov stressed the need to return to the accord achieved at Geneva on July...

Five Jews were killed in their kibbutz inside Israel overnight.The five soldiers were killed during a tunnel attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, located near the Gaza border.Jihadis used their terror tunnels to infiltrate from their base in Gaza: JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the death of five more Israeli soldiers, which occurred during the infiltration of gunmen into a southern kibbutz through a tunnel from Gaza.The five soldiers were killed during the previously reported thwarted attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, located near the Gaza border, on Monday afternoon, during which one of the infiltrators was killed, according...

Central bankers think they can keep their economy going by artificial stimulus until they hit escape velocity and grow at normal rates again — but they’re wrong. Here at Dent Research we hold a different view to what drives the economy. And central bankers are in for three big surprises ahead. Their economies are NOT going to grow the way they’re hoping, at least not until the early 2020s, thanks to declining demographic cycles and unprecedented debt ratios. But the surprises I’m talking about are going to come out of left field and slam unexpectedly and so fast into these...

The unintended consequences of military intervention are nearly impossible to predict. ___ "Islamist militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a lightly defended United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya," The New York Times reported on September 12, 2012. " The attack, which killed the American ambassador and three staffers, would ultimately reveal that the CIA was running a secret mission out of Benghazi. Ross Douthat: The worst-case situation has not come to pass in Libya itself. But thanks to the ripple effects from Colonel Qaddafi’s fall, it’s well on its way to happening in nearby Mali. Not...

ARLINGTON, Va. — A small company is offering to the Navy a small, high-speed craft that it says can take on some of the missions of the littoral combat ship (LCS) in regional operations. The Ghost, a small waterplane-area twin-hull (SWATH) craft designed by Juliet Marine Systems Inc. of Portsmouth, N.H., has been tested in prototype form at sea and has been demonstrated to potential customers, including the U.S. Navy, said Greg Sancoff, chief executive officer of Juliet Marine. The Ghost is designed to perform anti-surface (ASUW) and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) and mine countermeasures (MCM), the three intended roles of...

BEIJING — China's Internet minders are scrubbing social networks for references about a heavily populated county in the south of the country's volatile and remote region of Xinjiang, following reports of a major outbreak of unrest. Some of the scrubbed postings from China's social media that can be seen on the website Freeweibo.com say Shache County in Xinjiang's southern Kashgar Prefecture has been hit by up to at least "four violent terrorist attacks." While the reports of unrest have yet to be confirmed, sources tell VOA that the county has been locked down and that no one is being allowed...

President Obama appears reticent to help Israel stamp out Hamas once and for all because his administration is being run by a “Muslim Sisterhood,” nationally syndicated talk-host Michael Savage told his listeners.""With the likes of senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, U.N. Ambassador Stephanie Power and National Security Adviser Susan Rice guiding Obama’s foreign policy, America appears to be siding with the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement founded in Egypt in 1928 that seeks to bring the world under Islamic law and has spun off violent jihadist groups such as al-Qaida and Hamas.It was the Muslim Brotherhood that governed Egypt in the wake of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as they grapple with an immigration crisis at the border, White House officials are making plans to act before November's mid-term elections to grant work permits to potentially millions of immigrants who are in this country illegally, allowing them to stay in the United States without threat of deportation, according to advocates and lawmakers in touch with the administration. Such a large-scale move on immigration could scramble election-year politics and lead some conservative Republicans to push for impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama, a prospect White House officials have openly discussed. Yet there's little sign that...

Migrant workers must now wait until they leave the country to receive severance pay. Migrant workers must leave the country when their visas expire, and according to law since 2011, South Korean employers have been obliged to pay their severance before their departure. Government officials claim that the revised law will prevent more illegal migrant workers from staying in the country. “We’ve found that a certain portion of registered workers did not leave the country even after they were paid their severance pay,” an official said. “They had no choice but to become the target of law enforcement authorities as...

AUSTIN, TX — The group of state lawmakers overseeing how much taxpayer money is being spent on the border is set to meet Tuesday at the state Capitol. “I don’t like that the state of Texas is having to put any extra dollars toward this effort that is clearly the responsibility of the federal government,” said state representative and committee chair Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton. “Are these immigrant children going to be enrolled in schools in Texas?” asked Gene Acuna, director of communications for the Texas Education Agency. The agency has not received any answers from the federal government.

Stealth destroyers, littoral combat ships headed to Pacific, Mabus says With $3.3 billion Zumwalt, Navy trying for smallest blip on radar Sometime next year, the USS Zumwalt will begin testing the Tomahawk missiles, GPS-guided munitions and "total ship" computing systems that will make the $3.3 billion vessel the most advanced destroyer in Navy history. Scope of Navy's LCS program uncertain, despite no clear replacement The lighter, faster surface fleet of the future may get heavier than Navy leaders have planned, as high-ranking skeptics at the Pentagon try to convince lawmakers that the service is relying too much on a new...