Free Republic

Poland signed the largest arms procurement deal in its history on Wednesday, agreeing with the United States to buy Raytheon Co’s (RTN.N) Patriot missile defense system for $4.75 billion in a major step to modernize its forces against a bolder Russia. “It is an extraordinary, historic moment; it is Poland’s introduction into a whole new world of state-of-the-art technology, modern weaponry, and defensive means,” President Andrzej Duda said during the signing ceremony. NATO member Poland has accelerated efforts to overhaul its ageing weaponry following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. Two-thirds of Poland’s weaponry dates from the Cold...

President Trump DONALD JOHN TRUMP McCaskill: Clinton should be more careful in how she describes Trump voters Stormy Daniels lawyer slams critics who say there was 'nothing new' in '60 Minutes' interview Costello won't seek reelection in Pennsylvania MORE following a Republican's loss in a special Pennsylvania congressional election is encouraging voters to elect candidates who will support his agenda in the midterms. A Trump campaign email with the subject line “I need Allies” sent Saturday includes a survey for respondents to describe what qualities are most important to them in a candidate. “2018 is our chance to elect TRUMP...

MANBIJ, Syria — The large section of northeastern Syria once occupied by the Islamic State is now a rare safe area in the war-ravaged country, thanks to an American-backed coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. The coalition’s fighters, who with American help drove the Islamic State from the region, are Arabs and Kurds, men and women, young and old. Many are veterans of multiple battles and have been wounded, but returned to the fight again and again. Here are a few of them.

Trump announced the move on Dec. 6, ending decades of U.S. ambiguity on the status of the city that both Israel and the Palestinians claim as their capital. (JTA) — To thank the 65 countries that did not support a resolution condemning President Donald Trump’s position on Jerusalem, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, invited her counterparts from those states to a reception. Haley extended the invitation Thursday hours after the General Assembly passed a resolution condemning Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the nrg news site reported. Nine countries voted against the resolution, including Israel,...

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a measure critical of President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel despite U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s warning that the move could put funding for their nations and the global body at risk. The nonbinding UN resolution passed on Thursday by a vote of 128-9, with 35 nations abstaining. Key U.S. allies backing the measure over Trump’s threats included the U.K., France, Italy, Japan and Germany. The U.S. was joined in opposition by countries including Guatemala, Nauru and Micronesia. Abstentions included Australia, Canada and Argentina. “The United States will...

On Monday, the U.S. vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution criticizing the United States’ decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. The vote was 14 to 1 and stated that the U.S. decision is null and void and must be rescinded, with only the U.S. voting against it. Under pressure by the Palestinians and Arab and Muslim nations, the president of the UN General Assembly has called an emergency session of the General Assembly for Thursday to consider a resolution similar to the one presented to the Security Council for...

Have the ancient Christian communities in northern Iraq fallen prey to Iran’s radical Islamist aspirations?Will Iran be permitted to complete its “Shi’a Crescent” or “land bridge,” stretching from Tehran through Iraq, into Syria and on into Lebanon, where Iran’s proxy Hezbollah already asserts enormous power? Is President Donald Trump’s bold assertion that Iran will be denied hegemony in the Middle East being refuted by the facts on the ground? Just last week, I wrote about the renewed hope that surged across displaced Christian communities in Iraq’s Nineveh Plain following Vice President Mike Pence’s encouraging speech at an Washington D.C. event.

Donald Trump is reportedly due to travel to the UK in February for his planned visit - despite outrage over his retweets of posts by an anti-Muslim group. The US president sparked a huge backlash when he shared the hate propaganda by Britain First to his more than 44 million followers just days ago. [snip] Trump's actions triggered a sharp rebuke from an army of critics - including Theresa May, who described the tweets as "wrong". Figures including London Mayor Sadiq Khan also demanded the prime minister go further and cancel her invitation to Trump to visit the UK. But...

The world equates American military power with the maintenance of the postwar global order of free commerce, communications and travel. Sometimes American power leads to costly, indecisive interventions like those in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya that were not able to translate superiority on the battlefield into lasting peace. But amid the frustrations of American foreign policy, it is forgotten that the United States also plays a critical but more silent role in ensuring the survival of small, at-risk nations. The majority of them are democratic and pro-Western. But they all share the misfortune of living in dangerous neighborhoods full of...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term in federal elections, exit polls suggest. Her conservative CDU/CSU alliance has won 32.5% of the vote, remaining the largest party in Germany's parliament, according to the ARD poll.

...Australia's prime minister says his country would come to the aid of the United States if North Korea attacks Guam. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Melbourne Radio 3AW: "We would come to the aid of the United States. How that manifests itself will obviously depend on the circumstances and consultations with our allies." Turnbull added: "If North Korea decides to carry out some of its violent threats, then obviously terrible consequences will follow." The prime minister says he discussed the threat with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence overnight.....

Many journalists reacted breathlessly to a New York Times report on Sunday revealing that President Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., met with a Russian lawyer who indicated she had damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Donald Jr. admitted to the June 2016 meeting — to which he brought campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump adviser Jared Kushner — but downplayed its significance. “Obviously I’m the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent,” he wrote on Twitter Monday morning, adding that the meeting “went nowhere” but that he “had to listen.” Many...

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in Israel on a historic three-day visit - the first by an Indian prime minister. The visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1992. ..The Times of India published a joint editorial written by Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu highlighting the collaborations between the two countries. "India and Israel are walking hand in hand into the future as partners," the editorial said. Ties between the two nations have become more "visible" since Modi became prime minister in 2014 and Israeli ambassador...

Trudeau complimented Trump but downplayed his importance to the Canada-U.S. relationship in an interview at the University of Toronto on Thursday, saying that the U.S. president “knows how to interact socially on a very effective level.” According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Donald Trump is a willing listener with good social skills who keeps his word and is open to changing his mind when presented with opposing positions. Trudeau, who has made a determined effort to avoid angering the mercurial president, offered his complimentary assessment in a public interview with two New York Times journalists at the University...

Despite Donald Trump’s controversial tenure as US President, including an investigation for an impeachable offence, Australia’s faith in its alliance with US has risen dramatically since the property magnate took office. Some 65 per cent of Australians believe in our close relationship with the US under President Trump, up from the 51 per cent who supported the alliance during the 2016 presidential election campaign that Hillary Clinton was widely tipped to win, according to a Lowy Institute poll. As many as 77 per cent of Australians believe the alliance with the United States is either “very” or “fairly” important for...

President Trump’s legal team and political allies have launched a preemptive strike against special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump’s backers are furious about a story that appeared Wednesday in the Washington Post, in which five anonymous sources alleged that the president is the target of an obstruction of justice investigation for allegedly trying to bury an FBI probe into his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. The timing of that story, which was published on Trump’s birthday and a week after the White House believed the president had moved beyond allegations of election collusion with Russia, was viewed by Trump’s allies...

The Senate on Tuesday narrowly turned back a bipartisan bid to rebuke Saudi Arabia and reject President Donald Trump's plan to sell the kingdom more than $500 million in precision-guided munitions, sparing the new Republican administration an embarrassing defeat. The vote Tuesday was 53-47, clearing the way for the sale to be finalized. The precision munitions are part of Trump's proposed $110 billion arms package to Riyadh, which the administration said would create U.S. jobs while also improving a key ally's military capability. But opponents of the deal, led by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have been...

Recently within the American conservative and Christian zeitgeists I have noticed a growing positive view of Vladimir Putin and desire for a U.S.-Russia Christian military alliance against Islamic terrorism. As both a conservative Christian American and a policy specialist on Russia and Eastern Europe, this is a perilous line of thinking. The growing trend among conservatives to support Putin’s Russia is problematic because Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) engage in activities that run directly contrary to U.S. national security objectives, values of Western civilization writ large, and teaching of Christian scripture. Perceptions that Russia is...

President Donald Trump tweeted his congratulations Sunday afternoon to Emmanuel Macron, the newly-elected president of France. "Congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his big win today as the next President of France. I look very much forward to working with him!" Trump tweeted. Macron, a former investment banker, defeated far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen in France's elections on Sunday by around 65 percent to 35 percent at the time polls closed. Macron, a centrist, will bring a business-friendly vision for France to replace current President Francois Hollande's unpopular Socialist government.

During a meeting Thursday night with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, President Donald Trump praised Australia’s universal health care system. He made the comments while insisting that Republicans are “united” in their push to repeal Obamacare and praising the legislation passed by the House on Thursday. “It’s a very good bill right now. The premiums are going to come down, very substantially. The deductibles are going to come down. It’s going to be fantastic health care. Right now Obamacare is failing. We have a failing health care,” Trump said. “I shouldn’t say this to our great gentleman and my friend...