Free Republic

It’s time to draft Al Gore: If Democrats want to win, it’s clear neither Hillary nor Sanders is the way The presidential election is still sixteen months away, but this much is clear: Hillary Clinton is a vulnerable candidate. Since announcing her candidacy in April, Clinton’s stature has steadily slipped. Things got even worse this week. We learned, first, that Bernie Sanders eclipsed Clinton in small, individual donations, which is an indicator of popular support among likely voters. Second, and more problematic, the newest AP poll revealed significant weaknesses among Democrats on a host of issues, including trust, character, and...

Russia may be coming to the realization that developing a high-tech weapon system is not the same as fielding it en masse, or even in relatively limited numbers. This appears to be the case for both the T-14 “Armata” tank, the T-50 5th generation fighter, and signs are possibly the PAK-DA next generation bomber. The T-14 has been Russia’s most celebrated new weapon system as of late. Regardless of its capability (though it’s by no means a “silver bullet” weapon system), in order to be really effective it needs to be fielded in relevant numbers. Originally the idea was to...

Britain is diverting precision-guided bombs once intended for its Royal Air Force to Saudi Arabia so the Gulf State can build up a supply of the bombs it is using against targets in Yemen and Syria. The air forces of both nations use the precision-guided Paveway IV bomb on BAE Systems-supplied Tornado and Typhoon jets, making stocks easily interchangeable, Defense News reported. The Saudi Royal Air Force has been using the highly accurate, 500-pound bombs in its airstrikes against Islamic State targets and against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Earlier this week, the UK Ministry of Defense, responding to a House...

For the first time, the size and specifications of the Indian Navy's future aircraft carrier have been officially acknowledged. The navy has written to at least four major global shipbuilders, asking for proposals to help in designing a 65,000 tonne carrier that would be about 300 metres long. The letter of request, issued by the Indian Navy on Wednesday, specifies the carrier should be capable of speeds greater than 30 knots (56 km per hour). However, it is silent on whether it prefers nuclear propulsion, or conventional diesel or gas turbines. The navy's letter states the carrier will embark 30-35...

Russian-American cooperation on the Iran nuclear deal could pave the way for an agreement on Syria, Barack Obama has said, despite the current confrontation between Moscow and the West over Ukraine. Mr Obama praised Vladimir Putin for his role in the agreement and said there could now be an “opening” for further detente in the worst crisis in American-Russian relations since the Cold War. Speaking shortly after a historic agreement to curb Iran's nuclear programme was signed in Vienna, Mr Obama said that there was now an opportunity for a "serious conversation" with Mr Putin about the fate of Bashar...

We know not what is good until we have lost it: Mikheil Saakashvili, who actively supported the Euromaidan turmoil that toppled President Viktor Yanukovych, now asserted that it will take 20 years to reach the social level of Yanukovych's Ukraine. Ukraine has slid into such poverty that it will take 20 years to reach the level of 2013, if the country develops in favorable conditions, Odessa region governor Mikheil Saaksshvili said, local Timer reported Sunday. "Now Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe. If the collapse of the economy suddenly stops, and Ukraine develops by four percent annually, we will...

RUSSIAN-backed rebels in Ukraine’s east believed they had shot down a Ukraine Airforce fighter jet as disturbing new footage shows them ransacking the luggage of passengers and crew from Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. A year ago today, 298 passengers and crew including 38 Australian citizens and residents died aboard the Kuala Lumpur bound commercial flight after it was shot down over east Ukraine, 40km from the Russian border. Much footage exists particularly on the internet of the aftermath of the downed airliner, smouldering over three main wreckage sites about the rebel stronghold of the embattled Dontesk region. But, after a...

Full title: Terror on the high seas: Egyptian navy vessel erupts in huge fireball as ISIS carry out rocket strike on patrol ship in the Mediterranean Extremists loyal to the Islamic State in Egypt have attacked a naval patrol ship in the Mediterranean Sea, causing it to burst into flames. The Egyptian military said earlier a coastguard vessel had exchanged shots with militants just two miles off the coast of northern Sinai, an area bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip. There were no fatalities among the vessel's crew in the shootout with the terrorists, according to a Facebook message posted...

An Egyptian navy vessel was targeted on Thursday by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, who claimed they destroyed it with a rocket while it was anchored off the Sinai peninsula’s Mediterranean coast. Egyptian military spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir said the vessel caught fire in an exchange of fire with “terrorists” on the shore and that there were no fatalities among its crew members. He did not say how much damage the vessel suffered and gave no details on the type of ship or the size of its crew. However, security officials said an unspecified number of crew...

We are seeing the emergence of a dual power structure in Central Asia, with China as the dominant economic power and Russia as the big security player. Or, as Alexander Gabuev, senior associate and the chair of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific program at the Carnegie Moscow Center, told Foreign Policy: "China would be the bank and Russia would be the big gun." The confluence comes as Moscow shifts its attention toward Asia after being isolating by the West over the war in Ukraine. China, for its part, is seeking to find new countries it can export goods to as...

South Africa’s reputation as top gun when it comes to air power in the southern African region could be shot down by Angola and its powerful new Russian fighters. The west African country is set to take delivery of the first tranche of Sukhoi Su-30K fighters in the next six months and will have 12 in service by the end of next year. Gauteng Afrikaans daily Beeld approached military analyst Helmoed Heitman, retired SAAF and Indian Air Force pilot colonel Rama Iyer and a former officer commanding 2 Squadron for their views on how the SA Air Force’s (SAAF) Gripens...

Egypt's Islamic State affiliate said on Thursday it fired a rocket at an Egyptian naval vessel in the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of Israel and the Gaza Strip. The militant group Sinai Province has focused mainly on attacking Egyptian soldiers and police in the Sinai peninsula, killing hundreds since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. Photographs distributed online by the group appeared to show a rocket heading towards a ship and setting it ablaze on impact. Reuters could not verify the militants' version of events. The Egyptian military said in...

2016: If only Wall Street bankers had listened to St. Hillary during the subprime mortgage frenzy. She now claims she warned about the risky loans. Yep, a Clinton actually went there. Her campaign may regret it. While bashing Wall Street for risky acts and "criminal behavior," Clinton in her first economic stump speech portrayed herself as the voice of financial sanity in a casino of wild greed. "As we all know, in the years before the crash, financial firms piled risk upon risk," she intoned, "and regulators in Washington either wouldn't or couldn't keep up. "I was alarmed by this...

the most interesting man in the world While the biggest concern to most of us in regards to the Iran nuclear talks remains Obama’s aiding Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, one of the most important items from Iran’s standpoint was the removal of economic sanctions. Not only were these sanctions hurting Iran’s economy and people — the mullahs could give a fat rat’s patootie about that — and it was hurting members of the Iranian ruling clique. Among the big winners in the agreement to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, count a notorious and shadowy Iranian general who helped Shiite militias...

(CNSNews.com) – In the closing minutes of the Iran nuclear negotiations in Vienna this week, Secretary of State John Kerry made a comment about having gone to war as a young man and not wanting to do so again, leaving everyone in the room, including the Iranians, with “tears in their eyes.” Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, the lead U.S. negotiator in the talks, recounted the moment while addressing the annual Generation Prague Conference at the State Department on Wednesday. Sherman said that in the final plenary session, with the media out of the room, each of...

Here's what we know: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 for selling U.S. nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union after one of the most sensational Cold War-era espionage trials. They were convicted in 1951 owing, largely, to the testimony of David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg's brother. Here's what we don't know: How credible Greenglass' testimony was in court. Greenglass himself spent nearly a decade in prison for his role in the conspiracy. The Army sergeant stole nuclear intelligence from Los Alamos, N.M., and said he passed it on to the Rosenbergs. At the trial, he said Ethel Rosenberg typed...

There’s one person ecstatic about the Iran deal and Washington would probably prefer he just keep his mouth shut: Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Professing in a cable to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the newly agreed upon nuclear accord between the world’s major powers was a “historic achievement,” Assad went on to note his satisfaction that this would only strengthen Iran’s work for “peace and stability…in the region and the world.” Translation: Iran will further finance and militarily bolster Assad’s crumbling regime, not to mention other affiliates and proxies.

‘Bottleneck’ dates back 600 to 800 years, genome analysis shows; researcher says among population ‘everyone is a 30th cousin. Illustrative photo of Ashkenazi Jews, taken from Nurit Ben Sheetri's 'The Redheads' exhibit at Dizengoff Center (courtesy Nurit Ben Sheetrit) A new study concludes that all Ashkenazi Jews can trace their ancestry to a “bottleneck” of just 350 individuals, dating back to between 600 and 800 years ago. The study, published in the Nature Communications journal Tuesday, was authored by Shai Carmi, a computer science professor at Columbia University, and more than 20 medical researchers from Yale, Columbia, Yeshiva University’s Albert...

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine on Wednesday reported some of the strongest attacks by pro-Russian rebels since the signing of a peace deal in February, with eight government soldiers killed in the past 24 hours.

Russia said Tuesday that it welcomes the agreement reached in Vienna concerning Iran’s nuclear program. “We are certain that the world heaved a sigh of relief today,” an official statement said. “The negotiations supported by the UN Security Council and involving Russia, China, the USA, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iran and the European Union went on for many years. We are satisfied that the solution found is based on the principle of phasing and mutuality which our country has been consistently supporting at every stage of these complicated negotiations. “The IAEA will carefully monitor the implementation of the agreed steps...