Free Republic

Russia is rejoicing after President Trump ripped up three years of US policy on the war in Ukraine. Lindsey Hilsum reports

Eighty years ago, on February 4, 1945, the Yalta Conference opened, at which the leaders of the victorious countries of World War II – the USSR, the US and UK – defined the contours of the post-war world. Despite ideological differences, they agreed to finally eradicate German Nazism and Japanese militarism. The agreements reached in Crimea were confirmed and developed during the Potsdam Peace Conference in July 1945. One of the results of the negotiations was the creation of the UN and approval of the UN Charter, which remains the main source of international law to this day. The goals...

"Part of the reason why US President Donald Trump dismissed National Security Adviser Michael Waltz was due to behind-the-scenes coordination with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on possible military action against Iran, without the president’s full knowledge or approval, The Washington Post reported on Saturday. According to the report, which cited multiple senior administration officials, tensions between Waltz and Trump had been mounting for weeks. Waltz allegedly worked closely with Netanyahu to prepare military options in advance of a February Oval Office meeting — a move he reportedly made without informing the president. ..."

A Doña Ana County magistrate judge has abruptly stepped down after an alleged Tren de Aragua gang affiliate who is in the U.S. illegally was reportedly arrested at his home and charged with possession of a firearm or ammunition. Judge Jose “Joel” Cano reportedly submitted a letter of resignation on Mar. 3 of this year. Judge Cano, a former police officer who took the bench in 2011, told a Border Hawk source that he did indeed resign but did not comment further. Border Hawk contacted the judge’s office on Apr. 1 and was told by a clerk that he had...

Russian military activity was also detected near Alaska in February and in December. The North American Aerospace Defense Command said Tuesday that Russian warplanes were flying off the coast of Alaska and were being tracked by the U.S. military. NORAD made it clear that the planes were not a threat and that they did not go into Canadian or American airspace, according to CBS News. The number of planes was also not made clear. "NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions," the aerospace...

A child murdered his mother and stepfather at the family's stunning $900,000 home because he thought it would help give him 'clout' to kill Donald Trump. Nikita Casap, 17, was arrested in March after he allegedly killed his parents at their home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, then fled the state in their car. Prosecutors said the teenager shot and killed mom Tatiana Casap, 35, and stepdad Donald Mayer, 51, on February 11 before fleeing the scene and leaving their bodies to decompose inside their home. However, they were not discovered until police performed a welfare check at the family's sprawling home...

It all happened overnight and in a matter of minutes. Ben Zhou, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, made a series of routine transfers from his home computer. A short while later, his company called to inform him that his reserves of Ethereum, the second most-used cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, worth $1.5 billion, had vanished. By then, the ethers had already been transferred to thousands of other people’s digital wallets. Bybit had just suffered the largest theft in history. Five days later, the FBI confirmed what some analysts suspected from the outset: the attack was the work of Lazarus, a hacking...

A major cryptocurrency exchange says it was the victim of a sophisticated hack that stole about $1.5 billion worth of digital currency, marking one of the biggest online thefts of all time. Bybit said Friday that a routine transfer of Ethereum, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, between digital wallets was “manipulated” by an attacker who transferred the crypto to an unidentified address. The company sought to reassure customers that their cryptocurrency holdings with the exchange were safe. The company added that news of the hack had led to a surge in withdrawal requests and there could be delays in...

Their collective name, “coalition of the willing,” suggests that the loose grouping of Ukraine's allies certainly wants to help. But as the nearly three dozen nations gather again for more talks in Paris, it is still far from clear exactly what kind of aid they are preparing that could contribute toward their goal of making any ceasefire with Russia lasting. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been driving the coalition-building effort with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, is expecting 31 delegations around the table Thursday morning at the presidential Elysee Palace. That's more than Macron gathered for a first meeting...

The leader of Ansarallah, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, threatened “military intervention” on Thursday against America if President Donald Trump goes ahead with his plan to rehabilitate the war-torn Gaza Strip. Houthi, the leader of the Yemeni jihadist terror organization commonly referred to as the Houthis, aggressively opposed Trump’s call to allow Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza to seek refuge in neighboring countries, instead supporting fellow terrorist organization Hamas, which is the governing body of Gaza, in its quest to continue controlling the territory’s population. Translations of Houthi’s remarks this week indicate that he suggested to Washington to ethnically cleanse Israel, forcing its...

Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired surface-to-air [SAM] missiles at a US F-16 fighter jet over the Red Sea outside of rebel-controlled areas of Yemen in the first attack of its kind. The missile did not hit its target. U.S. military officials are describing the launch as a significant escalation in the Iran-backed group’s ongoing conflict with Israel’s allies in the war with Gaza. U.S. military ships are stationed in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait to defend and escort commercial ships in order to protect them from Houthi attacks, which started in earnest after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack...

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi speaks with Mahyar Tousi about the future of Iran. Great news. He's not asking for the US or Russia to stick their hand in. Wants a popular revolution, the Iranian people to liberate themselves. No transcript, at least not yet. Interview is still ongoing?

On Feb. 25, a flurry of accurate Russian drone strikes knocked out dozens of Ukrainian vehicles along the main road to Sudzha, the town that is—or was—the main base for the 10,000-strong Ukrainian force occupying a significant, but quickly shrinking, salient in Kursk Oblast in western Russia. That was “the day you started worrying about Kursk,” wrote independent analyst Andrew Perpetua. Two weeks later, it seems the bulk of the Ukrainian force—Ukrainian army’s heaviest brigades—has evacuated Kursk and repositioned on the Ukrainian side of the border. “My friends managed to leave Kursk, avoiding encirclement,” one Ukrainian source claimed Monday. “It’s...

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has called on experts in his country to search for rare earth minerals, shortly after this set of elements shot to public prominence due to a possible mineral deal between the US and Ukraine. Lukashenko instructed his Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Shuleiko to ensure that Belarus is no longer geologically underdeveloped, state-run media reported. “It is the number one topic today,” the Belarusian president said, referring to rare earths, which are used in key 21st century industries such as renewable energy. “There are not a lot of them in the earth. Perhaps we have them as...

The Trump administration is wasting no time reversing President Joe Biden's disastrous energy policies and is already opening up new lanes of production less than two months after being sworn into office. Last week Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to Louisiana to announce new liquified natural gas exports are back in business. Bergum and Wright were hosted by Venture Global, which committed to $18 billion in new energy investments. "Venture Global announced plans for a brownfield expansion at its Plaquemines LNG facility south of New Orleans, Louisiana. Joining Venture Global for the announcement was Secretary...

Tech billionaire Elon Musk and United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio have traded barbs with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski over the use of Musk’s Starlink internet service in Ukraine. During the tense exchange on X on Sunday, Sikorski suggested that Poland, which pays Ukraine’s Starlink costs to help it repel Russia’s invasion, might have to seek alternative suppliers if Musk’s satellite network proves to be an “unreliable provider”. -snip- Rubio came to Musk’s defence following Sikorski’s post, accusing the Polish politician of “making things up”. “No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink,” Rubio...

Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation, with Clinton’s copious help, was the source of Russia’s incredible hypersonic weapons technology. During his first TV interview as the new President of the United States, Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the Russian Federation had been “stealing” hypersonic weapons research and development from the United States during the Obama administration. This point went viral. But the story is murkier than that. Certainly, Russia did acquire key components from the United States during the Obama administration. But they did not steal it. They purchased it. And the person who authorized the sale was none other...

US President Donald Trump has decided to extend sanctions against Russia for at least another year, according to the relevant document in the Federal Register. The document emphasizes that the United States first imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 when Russian soldiers invaded Ukrainian territory, occupying Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Since then, the initial executive order on sanctions, #13660 from 2014, has been repeatedly expanded by US presidents through other orders as Russia continued and escalated its aggression.

The EU's top diplomat said Thursday that NATO offered the best security guarantee for Ukraine, accusing President Donald Trump of falling for a Russian narrative by closing the door.In an interview with AFP on a visit to Washington, Kaja Kallas also warned that the Europeans would not be able to assist in an eventual ceasefire deal in Ukraine's three-year conflict with Russia unless they are included by Trump, who has reached out directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin.Kallas, a former prime minister of frontline state Estonia, said NATO countries have never attacked Russia which instead was "afraid of democracy."

Alexander Dubinsky emphasized that Trump’s opponents wanted to take revenge against the US president for his public criticism of "the Democratic leadership, consistently portraying them as incompetent"MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Donald Trump's enemies are using Vladimir Zelensky to provoke the US president into doing or saying something that could serve as a pretext for his impeachment, according to Alexander Dubinsky, an opposition-minded member in the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada). "Many are wondering why Zelensky has been taking digs at Trump. In my opinion, globalists are pulling the strings here. Today, through Zelensky, they are attempting to provoke and undermine Trump,...