Free Republic

President Donald Trump welcomed India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House Monday for their first meeting, where personal chemistry as much as policy could set the tone for future relations. The leaders of the world's two largest democracies are looking to expand ties on defense and fighting terrorism, but strains are likely on trade.LIVE UPDATES Hours before Modi's arrival, the State Department imposed sanctions on the Pakistan-based leader of the main rebel group that fights against Indian control in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir. India hailed the move....

The facts of these cases illustrate the sort of relationship that qualifies. For individuals, a close familial relationship is required. A foreign national who wishes to enter the United States to live with or visit a family member, like Doe’s wife or Dr. Elshikh’s mother-in-law, clearly has such a relationship. As for entities, the relationship must be formal, documented, and formed in the ordinary course, rather than for the purpose of evading EO–2. The students from the designated countries who have been admitted to the University of Hawaii have such a relationship with an American entity. So too would a...

Donald Trump earned respect from the Washington establishment for appointing three of the nation’s most accomplished generals to direct his national security policy: James Mattis (secretary of defense), H.R. McMaster (national security adviser) and John Kelly (secretary of homeland security).

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wore Ramadan-themed socks during an LGBT Pride parade in Toronto on Sunday. Trudeau was photographed wearing the socks at a service just before the parade, where he also wished attendees a happy “Pride Mubarak” in celebration of the end of Ramadan. “Trudeau was joined by his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, and their children Xavier and Ella-Grace. Grégoire Trudeau waved a rainbow flag, one of the symbols of the LGBTQ community,” reported TheStar.com. “Trudeau also wished the crowd a happy ‘Pride Mubarak,’ a play on words referring to the end-of-Ramadan celebrations happening in the Muslim community...

JESSICA BIES FROM DELAWARE ONLINE People from all over the country are calling for a University of Delaware adjunct professor to be fired after she wrote on Facebook Tuesday that Otto Warmbier “got exactly what he deserved” after being taken into custody by North Korea, falling into a coma and dying. On her personal Facebook page, Kathy Dettwyler, an anthropology professor, wrote that Warmbier was “typical of a mindset of a lot of the young, white, rich, clueless males who come into my classes.” “These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn’t think they’d really...

Four officers have been taken to hospital as riot police attempted to control a violent Black Lives Matter rally in east London. Rioters threw projectiles at the police line and set fire to bins at the demonstration in Forest Hill in the borough of Newham. The protest was called after the death of Edir Frederico Da Costa, 25, on the 21st of June, six days after Metropolitan Police officers in Newham stopped him in a car.

In a transparent attempt at blame-shifting, former Obama spokesman Josh Earnest has tried to place responsibility for President Obama’s failure to respond effectively to Russian meddling in the election . . . on Republicans. It’s been reported that Obama was paralyzed into inaction by fears of seeming to help Hillary during the campaign. Appearing on today’s Morning Joe, Earnest said: “The first time, [McConnell] didn’t have time to schedule time to talk about it. This is something that Republicans did not take seriously, and that did hamstring our efforts to respond to this as effectively as we would have liked.”...

JTA-American Jewish billionaire philanthropist Sheldon Adelson was questioned by police for a second time in a corruption investigation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Adelson met on Monday with investigators from the Israel Police.........

A woman suffered 'life changing' burns after she had acid thrown at her while out celebrating her 21st birthday. Resham Khan was left with damage to one eye and extensive burns after being attacked as she drove through Beckton, east London, with her cousin Jameel on Wednesday morning. A man ran up and threw acid at both Ms Khan and her cousin through the open car window as they stopped at traffic lights. He then chased the pair as they tried to drive off but lost control of the car and crashed into a fence. Ms Khan told ITV News...

Now, there appears to be a new budding bromance: Between recently-elected French President Emmanuel Macron and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger The environmental comrades in arms -- both of whom have been critical of President Donald Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Accord -- shot a brief video selfie together on Friday at the Elysee Palace in Paris, after meeting to discuss all things green.... ...The pair will join on Saturday former United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, as well as high court judges from several countries, to launch a campaign for a global pact to protect...

KDP forces have detained 4 internationalist fighters that crossed from Rojava into Southern Kurdistan. It is not known yet where the fighters have been taken. According to reports, KDP peshmergas detained Swedish fighters Jesper Soeder and Andreas Charalabos, and British fighters Andrew Johnwoodhead and Lee Egerton at a checkpoint in Akre city, Southern Kurdistan. The driver accompanying the fighters was also taken into custody and it is not known yet where the fighters and their driver have been taken.

The largest warship ever built in the UK is due to set sail for the first time today. HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier, will leave her dock in Scotland around lunchtime to start two years of sea trials. She is named after Elizabeth the first and is the second ship to carry the name - the first was a World War One battleship. More than 700 crew are onboard, from seamen to aircraft engineers, dentists to force protection. The oldest crew member is 58 and the youngest 17 although the average age is in the early...

The families could reel off all the times they had called the media and written to Washington, but after all that trying, they had never heard anyone who mattered say anything like it: Most Mexican immigrants, Donald J. Trump declared in his first campaign speech, were “rapists” who were “bringing drugs, bringing crime” across the border. Now he had come to meet them, the families of people killed by undocumented immigrants, and they wanted to tell him he was right. One son had been struck by a truck, another shot just around the corner from home. Different causes of death,...

... "The [Golan] separation line was created in 1974 with Israeli and Syrian agreement and it was for many years the most quiet border Israel had. Now, if on the other side of the divide you don't have an entity that respects agreement on the separation line because its policy is to not agree with Israel on anything, that Israel doesn't exist, than this is something Israel need not and should not tolerate," Halevy stressed. Israel signaled this in January 2015 when an airstrike against two cars on the Syrian side of the Golan killed six Hezbollah fighters and a...

The Donald Trump Pentagon, in so many words, is saying that the Obama administration’s decision to waive punitive sanctions and buy combat helicopters from Russia was a bad deal. The Pentagon’s first congressionally required report on Afghanistan under President Trump says the Russian Mi-17 chopper has proved a failure in the long war and will be phased out in favor of American-made UH-60 Black Hawks. The Obama administration came to realize the failure in its last weeks in office and stopped the deal. The report this month on “Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan” marks official confirmation that the Russian...

One interesting aspect of the upcoming summit between President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump is how their wives will do their part to bring the countries closer. The two are known to be quite different in character.Korea's first lady Kim Jung-sook will be greeted by U.S. President Donald Trump's wife Melania Trump, who will accompany her for part of her stay here. Kim, who worked at Seoul Metropolitan Chorus after studying vocal music at Kyung Hee University, went to Busan to support her husband President Moon Jae-in when he began his career as a lawyer. Born in Slovenia,...

Now here's a photo from our U.S. armed forces in the field worth a look: It's an M109 self-propelled tank from an undisclosed field location, bearing President Trump's cryptic Twitter typo, COVFEFE, according to the Daily Caller, which ran the picture yesterday. COVFEFE was the subject of much speculation, mostly on the left, as to what it might have meant. In this case, one of the troops has helpfully given the answer: rising military morale. You never saw such repetitions of presidential words during the Obama administration. Did anyone ever stamp 'You didn't build that' or 'If you like your...

A mosque in the capital of the United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi was renamed on Wednesay to “Mariam Umm Eisa” – meaning mother of Jesus in Arabic. The move was aimed at promoting social connections between followers of different religions and strengthen the common characteristics between them, local media reported. The name of the mosque, previously known as “Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Mosque,” was changed by order of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed al-Nahyan to “consolidate bonds of humanity between followers of different religions”. UAE's Minister of State for Tolerance Sheikha Lubna al-Qasimi said the move reflected...

Sweden is being torn to pieces by Muslim immigrants and refugees. Law enforcement is crying out for help, and it is only a question of time before the country will need military intervention from abroad in order to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. A leaked report concludes that the number of lawless areas (commonly referred to as “no-go zones”) in Sweden now totals 61. That is up from 55 in just one year’s time. This increase includes not only the total number, but also the geographical size of these areas. Sweden’s National Police Commissioner, Dan Eliasson, spoke on national television and...

TEHRAN — Iran held major anti-Israel rallies across the country Friday, with protesters chanting “Death to Israel” and declaring that destroying the Jewish state is “the Muslim world’s top priority.” Iranians participating in Quds Day rallies also called for unity among pro-Palestinian groups against the “child-murdering” Israeli government, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency. Marchers in Tehran headed from various points of the city to the Friday prayer ceremony at Tehran University. Similar demonstrations were held in other cities and towns in Iran. Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard used the demonstration in the capital’s Valiasr Square to showcase three surface-to-surface ballistic...