Free Republic

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned Friday that "it all looks as if the world is preparing for war." Gorbachev, who was head of the socialist state when it dissolved in 1991, wrote the comments in an opinion piece for Time magazine. Image: Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Gorbachev AFP/Getty Images "More troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers are being brought to Europe," the 85-year-old wrote. "NATO and Russian forces and weapons that used to be deployed at a distance are now placed closer to each other, as if to shoot point-blank." The 1990 Nobel Peace Prize-winner added: "Politicians and military leaders...

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.(Psalm 2:1-4)According to the Divine Psalmist, the Kings of the Earth and the rulers have embarked on an all-encompassing liberation movement, seeking to use their influence to break society free from the “bands” and “cords” of the religion of the LORD and his...

Explanation: How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius. The above illustration shows what would happen is all of the water on or near the surface of the Earth were bunched up into a ball. The radius of this ball would be only about 700 kilometers, less than half the radius of the Earth's Moon, but slightly larger than Saturn's moon Rhea which, like many moons in our outer Solar System, is mostly water ice. How...

Unearthed: the humble origins of world diplomacy By David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent 19 January 2003 Archaeologists have discovered evidence of an invasion of the Middle East by one of the world's first superpowers, which destroyed much of the region 33 centuries ago. Under the ruins of a 3,800-year-old royal palace in western Syria they have found part of an ancient diplomatic and administrative library, the most important archaeological discovery of its kind for more than 20 years. Accounts on clay tablets describe the region's conquest by one of the Bronze Age's superpowers, the Hittite Empire, in 1340BC. This helped to...

"We don’t often question the typical world map that hangs on the walls of classrooms — a patchwork of yellow, pink and green that separates the world into more than 200 nations. But Parag Khanna, a global strategist, says that this map is, essentially, obsolete. Khanna is the author of the new book “Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization,” in which he argues that the arc of global history is undeniably bending toward integration. Instead of the boundaries that separate sovereign nations, the lines that we should put on our maps are the high-speed railways, broadband cables and shipping...

I’m going through life without ever having hit a home run. To hit a ball perfectly and round the bases, touching home: That must be a pleasure. Once I came close. Just turning 26 and finishing my dissertation, I played on the American Culture team in the University of Michigan graduate school coed softball league, one of the weakest leagues imaginable. Susan had finished her undergraduate career there and was technically ineligible, but we were short of women who didn’t -- to use a phrase from those sexist days -- throw like girls. Here’s the scene, one week before our...

Officially, the top world leaders who gather Thursday at the Group of 7 summit meeting will talk about shared concerns, like global trade or the Islamic State. But their private discussions are likely to cover a topic that is not on the agenda: Donald J. Trump. President Obama now hears questions in his meetings with world leaders about whether Mr. Trump has a realistic shot at becoming president. For months, Mr. Obama has answered those questions with an emphatic “no.” But this week’s summit meeting in Japan is the first among major allies since Mr. Trump moved decisively toward securing...

May. 20, 2016 - 10:24 - Presumptive GOP nominee speaks out on EgyptAir crash

Talk about raising the stakes: Hillary Clinton says the “whole world” is pulling for her to defeat Donald Trump in November’s election.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch Do you know what your country’s biggest export is? Now, thanks to this map put out by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch, you can find out. The map does not include the export of services, but highlights some interesting insights and global trends. Part of their Transforming World Atlas, the report highlights “how many countries in the world are dependent on commodities as the primary source of foreign income.” In a volatile global commodities market, it is a reminder of the risk posed by falling oil prices to economies around the world. The...

Following the Islamic jihadist terrorist attacks in Brussels last week that killed 35 and wounded over 300, the Arab press reacted with blame for the West and certain countries in the region for supporting terrorism. A columnist for the Palestinian Authority (PA) daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, for instance, wrote recently that ISIS lacks the power and ability to carry out massive attacks like those in Paris and Brussels, and that they were actually orchestrated by Israel, using ISIS as a tool. Now, however, MEMRI – the Middle East Media Research, based in Washington, D.C. – reports on several noteworthy and self-critical...

There is no quick route by which one may approach Verdun. No superhighway passes through this sleepy town, nor do any of France’s fabled “Trains de Grande Vitesse” stop here. There is only the local line, and even that humbled creaking route terminates in Verdun. In the end, one can only come to this hallowed ground slowly, by a small four-car train or by narrow two-lane road. This is as it should be. Some 250,000 men died in these few square miles of turf, and one should not rush into a graveyard.

The global economy seems trapped in a "death spiral" that could lead to further weakness in oil prices, recession and a serious equity bear market, Citi strategists have warned. Some analysts -- including those at Citi -- have turned bearish on the world economy this year, following an equity rout in January and weaker economic data out of China and the U.S. "The world appears to be trapped in a circular reference death spiral," Citi strategists led by Jonathan Stubbs said in a report on Thursday. "Stronger U.S. dollar, weaker oil/commodity prices, weaker world trade/petrodollar liquidity, weaker EM (and global...

Consider the following: - The Democrats have no viable candidates, and one very well may be indicted - The Republican Party is imploding/being made irrelevant by Trump - The country has no borders - The Middle East and North Africa are in chaos - Fox News and many conservative pundits have lost respect of their audiences - Europe is being fundamentally changed by an Islamic invasion, and is tilting toward civil war - The "Pope" has more interest in Palestinians than he does Catholics - The world economy is as shaky today as it was in 2008 Any other seismic...

Denmark retained the top spot in the rankings as the country perceived as most clean, while North Korea and Somalia were the worst performers, each scoring just eight on the TI scale to 100. The other top spots, from second to ninth, were occupied by Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore and Canada. In Transparency International's corruption perceptions index report for 2015, Nigeria ranked very low, at 136 out of 168 countries.

Experts warn that we should be prepared for more dengue in the US and around the world. ‘Hawaii is a piece of a much bigger phenomenon that’s happening globally,’ says Dr. Peter Hotez at Baylor College of Medicine. It’s peak tourism season in Hawaii, and the state’s Department of Health has issued a warning for visitors and residents: dengue fever is spreading on the Big Island. More than 150 people on Hawaii Island have been infected with the mosquito-borne virus.

Oxfam study also finds richest one per cent on the planet is now worth more than the rest of everyone else put together The world's richest 62 people are worth as much as the planet's poorest 3.6 billion put together, according to new research. Oxfam study also finds richest one per cent on the planet is now worth more than the rest of everyone else put together And the richest one per cent on the planet is now worth more than the rest of everyone else put together. The report - highlighting "runaway inequality" - was published by Oxfam ahead...

IBD warned over a year and a half ago that President Obama wasn't about to spend his post-presidency building houses, like Jimmy Carter, but that there were discernible signs that he would seek to become secretary-general of the United Nations. In the West Point speech he gave in May 2014, IBD pointed out that the president denied the reality of the American global decline he has engineered. "Think about it," he told the assembled cadets. "Our military has no peer." It was disturbingly similar to Carter's pathetic 1979 "malaise" speech, in which Carter boasted of "the outward strength of America,...

"We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined."

Earlier this year, private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, recently published its Decade Forecast in which it projects the next 10 years of global political and economic developments. While international analysts often try their hand at predicting the major events of the coming year, Stratfor believes that it's identified the major trends of the next 10. In many ways, Stratfor thinks the world a decade from now will be more dangerous place, with US power waning and other prominent countries experiencing a period of chaos and decline. 1. Russia will collapse ... "There will not be an uprising against...