Free Republic

South Korea has successfully fired a fourth prototype Hyunmoo-2C short-range ballistic missile, which can reach any target in North Korea. The country’s new President Moon Jae-in lauded the test, which follows months of North Korean missile launches and escalating rhetoric on the Korean Peninsula, as in line with his administration’s foreign policy plans. On June 23, 2017, the South Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) conducted the test at its own facility approximately 120 miles southwest of Seoul. Video of launch showed the system’s standard semi-containerized truck-mounted launcher onboard either a ship or a sea platform. ADD, the country’s state-run...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the immediate suspension of fresh beef imports from the South American country on Thursday after inspections uncovered public health concerns, unsanitary conditions and animal health issues. The agency said the ban will remain in place until Brazil "takes corrective action." Brazil is the fifth biggest supplier of beef to the U.S., ranking behind only Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. It has sent nearly 50 million pounds of beef to the U.S. so far this year. "Although international trade is an important part of what we do at USDA, and Brazil has long been...

The AKP government has usurped churches, monasteries and graveyards belonging to the Syriac community in Mardin and handed them over as state property to the Diyanet, Turkey's Presidency for Religious Affairs. According to the Armenian newspaper Agos many churches, monasteries, graveyards and other assets of the Syriac community in the city of Mardin have been usurped and transferred to the state's Treasury and other relevant state institutions. After Mardin became a Metropolitan Municipality, its villages were officially turned into neighbourhoods as per the law and attached to the provincial administration. Following the legislative amendment introduced in late 2012, the Governorate...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night that IDF actions had made it clear that Israel does not tolerate the trickle of fire from any foreign warfront and pushes back forcefully. He spoke after an Israeli air strike was conducted against a Syrian position near Quenitra Saturday in response to two Syrian mortar shells flying into Golan and exploding-albeit harmlessly.....

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a new decision on President Donald Trump ’s March 6 Executive Order 13780, “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States.” The court affirmed the portions of the district court injunction that apply to the 90-day, six-country travel ban, but it vacated the portions of the injunction that relate to the government doing an internal review of its vetting procedures, which could lead to a much larger ban based on a different criterion. The Trump exception According to University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner, the courts are creating...

BBC video of a young Syrian man trying to make light of what will be the destruction of Europe. It illustrates the mentality of the "refugees" and the mentality of some Swedes participating in their own destruction. Check out the majority of comments at YT. Many people do not think this is a funny situation.

Here's why Rajeev Srinivasan believes there will be nothing particularly positive about the prime minister's US visit. IMAGE: The fact that it has taken this long for the US to extend an invitation to Narendra Modi suggests that India is not on Donald Trump's event horizon. Photographs: Peter Nicholls/Getty Images and Carlos Barria/Reuters Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not naive, so he is surely approaching his fifth visit to the United States, and his first meeting with US President Donald Trump with careful preparation. He is also deliberately creating low expectations. Unlike the hoopla of his previous Madison Square Gardens...

Those eager to ensure friction, want Trump to bring up issues that impinge on India’s sovereignty, aware that Modi would react strongly to any such efforts. Both during the 2016 Presidential campaign trail and in his previous avatar as a billionaire businessperson, President Donald John Trump had integrated India as a core component of the global order in his policies and actions. However, since his inauguration on 20 January and subsequently, very little mention has been made of India in the statements made by spokespersons for the Trump administration, while, as yet, several posts relevant to relations with India (such...

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Thursday held that federal law authorizes courts to strip immigrant citizens of their U.S. citizenship if they obtained it as a result of making false statements to the federal government. Federal law found at 18 U.S.C. § 1425(a) makes it a crime to “knowingly procur[e], contrary to law, the naturalization of any person” to become a U.S. citizen. (“Naturalization” is the legal term for becoming a citizen.) Moreover, a second federal statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1451(e) adds that a foreigner who obtains U.S. citizenship through such a violation will lose that newly granted citizenship. Divna Maslenjak...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China and the United States agreed that efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula should be "complete, verifiable and irreversible", Chinese state media said on Saturday, reporting the results of high level talks in Washington this week. "Both sides reaffirm that they will strive for the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," a consensus document released by the official Xinhua news agency said. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had said on Thursday that the United States pressed China to ramp up economic and political pressure on North Korea, during his meeting with top Chinese...

More than 120 people were buried by a landslide that caused huge rocks and a mass of earth to come crashing into their homes in a mountain village in southwestern China early Saturday, officials said. The landslide, which came from a mountain, engulfed a cluster of 62 homes and a hotel in the village of Xinmo in Mao County at about 6 a.m., the Sichuan provincial government said. Officials said 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) of road were buried in the disaster. “It’s the biggest landslide to hit this area since the Wenchuan earthquake

Saudi security forces foiled a terror plot targeting the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca after a suspect blew himself up after a gunfight. Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said security forces exchanged gunfire with one of the suspects who blew himself up inside a home he was hiding in yesterday. Five people, including a woman, were arrested in security operations in Mecca, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news website said, citing the security spokesman of the Saudi Interior Ministry, Mansour al-Turki.Full Title...............................Attack on Grand Mosque in Mecca is foiled as suspect blows himself up after a gunfight with Saudi...

On Thursday evening, CNN investigative reporter Thomas Frank published a potentially explosive report involving an investigation of a Russian investment fund with potential ties to several associates of President Donald Trump. But by Friday night, the story was removed from CNN’s website and all links were scrubbed from the network’s social media accounts.

For the debut of his MSNBC show this morning, Hugh Hewitt scored the first news network interview with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Debunking an assertion made by some, Pompeo said he couldn’t “imagine a statement that is anymore false” than the notion that Trump isn’t interested in intel. Pompeo stated that he personally meets with Trump for 35-40 minutes virtually every day, that Trump is an “avid consumer” of intel, and asks great questions. View the video here.

On June 19, Iran Launched 7 medium-range ballistic missiles targeting ISIS in Syria. The same day a US Navy Super Hornet shot down a Syrian Su-22. On June 20, a USAF F-15E blasted Iranian Shahed-129 armed drone out of the sky. The drone was shot down as it advanced toward the coalition-backed rebel outpost of At Tanf, near the southern Syrian border. In addition, Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, in a speech, harshly attacked the US and posted hostile tweets. “That US arms a terrorist group is what causes instability. Who created #ISIS? The US!... That the US joined the anti-ISIS...

Germany’s refugees — and there are many — will by and large be on the public dole for life, according to a new study provided labor officials. For the rest? Public assistance and taxpayer benefits would be their lifetime reward, he said. From the Express: “The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) found only 45 per cent of Syrian refugees in Germany have a school-leaving certificate and 23 per cent a college degree. “It said 484,000 of the refugees are looking for work, up from 322,000 last July — an increase of 50 per cent. “Of those, 178,500 are officially unemployed,...

Our involvement in Afghanistan is untenable because the country is untenable. No matter what is done, Afghanistan will fail because of its galloping population growth. When the U.S. became involved in 2001, the country had a population of 20.5 million. Now it is 34.4 million, up nearly 70 percent. In the intervening 16 years, the U.S. spent about one trillion dollars and 2,000 lives in stabilizing Afghanistan. All the stability and free food provided just created a perfect breeding environment for the natives. The population growth rate has settled at 3.0 percent per annum. At that rate, in another 16...

THREE quarters of Germany’s refugees will be long-term unemployed and claiming benefits for years, it was admitted today. Aydan Özoğuz, commissioner for immigration, refugees and integration, told the Financial Times that only a quarter to a third of the newcomers would enter the labour market over the next five years, and “for many others we will need up to 10”. The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) found only 45 per cent of Syrian refugees in Germany have a school-leaving certificate and 23 per cent a college degree. Statistics from the Federal Labour Agency show the employment rate among refugees stands...

Frustrated Dems say Obama botched Russia response By Katie Bo Williams - 06/23/17 05:48 PM EDT The Obama administration is under fresh scrutiny for its response to Russian meddling in the election after new details emerged this week about how the White House weighed its actions against the 2016 political environment. Then-President Obama was too cautious in the months leading up to the election, frustrated Democratic lawmakers and strategists say. “It was inadequate. I think they could have done a better job informing the American people of the extent of the attack,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a member of...

(This is well worth watching for anyone interested in the story of Warmbier. It left me with a bunch of questions that should be investigated. There's more to this than what we've been led to believe. Right now I don't know what to believe. It sounds like stealing the slogan sign was much more than a stupid prank. Did he just make up the story of the Methodist church and the Z-society being involved? It's either the most bizarre and surreal conspiracy, or...?)