Free Republic

Thousands protested in London on Wednesday in sympathy with demonstrations across the US over the killing of a black teenager by a white police officer. ... Following the vigil at the embassy, the crowd marched through London's central shopping district, stopping traffic

'The Royal Navy may ask US squadrons to fly off its new aircraft carrier following delays to its new F35B fighters, BBC Newsnight has learned. MoD insiders said the US Marine Corps would be offered the use of HMS Queen Elizabeth II for flight operations. The UK plans to have its first F35 squadron operational by 2018, but Newsnight has learned that there may be further delays.'

He is Dmitry Firtash, a former fireman and soldier. In little more than a decade, the Ukrainian went from obscurity to wealth and renown, largely by buying gas from Russia and selling it in his home country. His success was built on remarkable sweetheart deals brokered by associates of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, at immense cost to Russian taxpayers, a Reuters investigation shows. Russian government records reviewed for this article reveal for the first time the terms of recent deals between Firtash and Russia's Gazprom, a giant gas company majority owned by the state. According to Russian customs documents detailing...

Retired military personnel are calling on the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines to change their lists of disqualifying conditions to allow transgender people to serve openly. Though the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was repealed, allowing openly gay people to serve in the military, there is still a ban on transgender service members. In May, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said that the ban should be “continually reviewed.” A report released by the Palm Center on Tuesday, however, said the Department of Defense deleted its list of medically disqualifying and administratively disqualifying conditions in August. Now only conditions that...

According to French financial newspaper La Tribune, Egypt would like to quickly procure a FREMM multi-mission frigate from France, following the deal the country has just signed with DCNS for four Gowind 2500 corvettes (the lead ship to be built in France and the 3 others to be built in Egypt as part of a transfer of technology). Egypt is reported to have requested a FREMM for as early as 2015. La Tribune is reporting that France could sell Aquitaine class Frigate Normandie which is set to be delivered to the French Navy by year end. This would come as...

The Defense Secretary job opening is emerging as a thanks-but-no-thanks opportunity, as some of the top potential prospects have already said they’re not interested in the job. Within minutes of reports Monday that Secretary Chuck Hagel would resign, the names of Michele Flournoy and Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed emerged as top prospects. But each made clear by the end of the day that they didn’t want the coveted but high-wire, Cabinet-level post. The new secretary would indeed step into a difficult and complicated world, with the emergence of the deadly and unpredictable militant group Islamic State, amid Defense Department...

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s cash-strapped far-right National Front (FN), on Sunday justified her party's €9 million loan from a Russian Bank saying it was needed to beef up their war chest ahead of local elections, saying “French banks won’t lend to us”. The loan, from Moscow-based First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB), was signed in September and was first revealed by French investigative website Mediapart on Saturday. In an interview with French daily Le Monde, Le Pen said her party had had no choice but go to a Russian bank for funds, with the departmental elections coming up...

President Obama’s defiance appears to know no bounds. Why do I say this? Consider this: Since the beginning of the last century, Australia is the only country to have fought alongside the United States in every single major conflict. Australia is America’s closest ally in Asia, and indeed, the world. So, what President Obama did when he came to the G20 meeting in Brisbane, Australia, was stunning and offensive. Mirroring his action in sending the bust of Winston Churchill back to England, the President gave a provocative, anti-Abbott (Australia’s PM) speech on climate change at the University of Queensland. But...

The leader of Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ), Heinz-Christian Strache, is in Moscow for a discussion on “overcoming the crisis in Europe”. This comes amid speculation as to whether the FPÖ might have received financial support from Russia, after a Moscow strategy paper seen by German media revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been advised to influence Europe through right-wing populist parties including Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD). The round-table discussion is being chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Strache is accompanied by the chairman of the Vienna FPÖ Johann Gudenus, the party’s foreign policy spokesman Johannes Hübner, and...

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. Nearly two years ago, these writers urged President Obama to “Chuck Hagel.” Today, it seems, the hapless Secretary of Defense is on his way out. We wish him no ill. And we certainly don’t rejoice in his forced resignation. The timing of his dismissal could hardly be worse. It comes on the eve of another “deadline” in our dealings with an Iran bent on acquiring nuclear weapons. Secretary Hagel never overcame his stumbling debut. A recent poll of national security personnel gave him an abysmal 26% approval rating. And while we...

For most of the past four years, OPEC has had an easy time. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries hasn’t had to do much to keep oil prices over $100 a barrel. Disruptions in supply — most notably the Libyan civil war — and rising demand have kept the cartel’s coffers full. It has been, say Barclays’ commodities analysts, the culmination of OPEC’s “golden age.” Saudi Arabia, which has played the role of swing producer balancing the market, has not trimmed its output as it often has in the past, instead cutting prices to hang onto market share while...

The US Army plans to deploy about 150 tanks and armoured vehicles to NATO countries next year and some of the heavy armour may be stationed in Eastern Europe, a top American general said on Tuesday. The move is part of a US effort dubbed Operaton Atlantic Resolve in the Baltic states and Poland to reassure allies anxious about a 'resurgent Russia', with American troops deploying for several months at a time to conduct joint exercises. Nearly 50 armoured vehicles are already in place and another 100 M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles will be "pre-positioned" in Germany and...

India’s largest state-owned bank will launch an Islamic equity fund next month aimed mainly at attracting investments from the country’s 170 million Muslims.The Securities and Exchange Board of India, the country’s capital markets regulator, recently allowed the government-owned State Bank of India and three mutual funds to launch Shariah funds. […] A large section of India’s Muslim population remains outside the banking system, partly because Islamic law known as Shariah prohibits interest. Shares of companies linked to alcohol, tobacco, gambling and casinos and financial institutions that earn interest would be excluded from the fund. […] India’s stock exchanges have between...

Last August, I flew halfway around the world with Chuck Hagel to try to see what made him tick, and why he’d been chosen as Secretary of Defense at such an unsettled, seemingly crucial period for our national security. I watched Hagel in bilateral meetings with Southeast Asian ministers of defense, and I watched him take questions from American marines in Hawaii. I saw him in a bathing suit (he’s an avid morning lap-swimmer), and I saw him in a business suit, and I saw him in leisurewear on the interminable flights across the Pacific. I interviewed him twice, generating...

BEIJING – A rare Siberian tiger released into the wild by Russian President Vladimir Putin is keeping farmers in northeastern China on edge. China's official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday that the animal, named Ustin, bit and killed 15 goats and left another three missing on Sunday and Monday on a farm in Heilongjiang province's Fuyuan county.

Vice President Joe Biden backed out from appearing with President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine at a memorial ceremony in Kiev on Friday, when the Secret Service determined it “wasn’t a good idea” after a crowd became “unruly,” a pool report said. “When Biden’s motorcade arrived on outskirts of what had become very large and somewhat unruly gathering, many chanting ‘shame’ at Poroshenko. … [U.S.] [S]ecret [S]ervice decided wasn’t a good idea for Biden to wade in,” according to the pool report.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - At a technology fair in Moscow last month, European executives faced the new reality of doing business in Russia since the West imposed sanctions: the number of companies at the international showcase had shrunk by half from a year ago. "The impact on business couldn't be clearer. Fewer stands, fewer companies," said Mark Bultinck, a sales executive for Belgian digital screen maker Barco, which had a booth at the annual expo for the audiovisual industry. The impact of the sanctions was already clear to Barco. The company lost Russia's biggest shipbuilder as a client when the United...

In all its fury and unanimity, the response from the right to President Obama’s decision to change immigration policy without the consent of Congress was the manifestation of a major transformation within the Tea Party. What started five years ago as a groundswell of conservatives committed to curtailing the reach of the federal government, cutting the deficit and countering the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party has become a movement largely against immigration overhaul. The politicians, intellectual leaders and activists who consider themselves part of the Tea Party have redirected their energy from advocating fiscal austerity and small government...

Havana -- Fifteen years ago today two fishermen plucked an exhausted, frightened five-year-old tied to an inner tube out of the waters off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale. Elian Gonzalez, less than two weeks short of his 6th birthday, was the young Cuban boy whose rescue set off an international custody battle and reverberated in the 2000 U.S. presidential campaign. Now nearly 21 and out of the public eye, Gonzalez is studying industrial engineering at the university in his home province of Matanzas in Cuba.

Failure of the year-long negotiations, seven months extension of endless negotiations, ignoring Security Council resolutions, leave the way open for mullahs to acquire nuclear bomb, entailing serious threat to world peace and security Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, described the failure of negotiations by the United States and the five powers with the religious fascism ruling Iran due to unjustified concessions to the regime and flexibilities exercised in dealing with the regime and said: Ignoring Security Council resolutions and extending endless negotiations with the Iranian regime leave the way open to acquire nuclear bomb which is considered...