Free Republic

WASHINGTON DC – Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired the top officials leading the National Intelligence Council – whom whistleblowers describe as “radically opposed to Trump” — and has moved the agency to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, to ensure she can block any “politicization of intelligence,” Fox News Digital has learned.Gabbard fired Mike Collins, who was serving as the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, Tuesday, senior intelligence officials told Fox News Digital.Fox News Digital reached out Langan-Riekhof for comment and did not immediately hear back,...

US President Donald Trump had a “fiery” and contentious phone call with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen last week, during which Trump insisted he was serious about taking over Greenland, European officials told the Financial Times. The officials, who were not identified by the FT, said the conversation had gone very badly, with one describing it as “horrendous.” Another official said that Trump’s intention to take over Greenland was “serious, and potentially very dangerous.” For weeks, Trump has voiced his interest in taking over Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Canada, in what analysts say reflect his hardball diplomacy. Frederiksen has...

Russia's ability to outmatch Ukraine with artillery barrages on the battlefield has significantly reduced to just 1.5 Russian rounds for every Ukrainian shell fired back, Western officials have said. This compares with Russian forces launching at least five times as many artillery rounds as Ukraine could in the war previously - with the ratio at times much higher even than that. The Western officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, put the levelling out down to a "wide variety of factors". These factors include limitations in Russia's defence production lines, difficulties with transporting more rounds to the frontline by rail,...

Russian cargo planes left Tehran 10 days ago with UAVs, some of which have already malfunctioned, U.S. and allied officials say Russian cargo planes have quietly picked up the first of scores of Iranian-made combat drones for use against Ukraine, U.S. officials said, in a move that underscores deepening ties between Moscow and Tehran while also highlighting Russia’s struggles to supply its overstretched military. But while the weapons could provide a significant boost for Russia’s war effort against Ukraine, the transfer has been marred by technical problems, security officials from the United States and an allied government said in interviews....

Three months ago, Sonya, a 25-year-old who works at a major mobile gaming company and moonlights as a tutor, made one of the toughest decisions of her life: She left Russia. She had an old but cozy communal apartment with her boyfriend and two other roommates in Moscow’s city center, a tight-knit group of friends, and spent several days a week taking classes at a local dance academy—her lifelong passion. “It’s my home. My family, friends are there. My whole life. How can you possibly abandon all these things?" she told Fortune. But like countless other young educated Russians, Sonya,...

Donald Trump's top advisors have expressed doubts about the accuracy of the White House's apocalyptic forecast that 240,000 Americans will die from the coronavirus pandemic, sources have said. As the US death reached 6,056 Thursday and the nation's healthcare system buckles under the crisis, administration officials said the stark forecasts could have been a tactic to warn the president he needs to act now. The White House made the shock prediction Tuesday that there will be between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in the US if the nation continues on its trajectory and current social distancing guidelines are maintained. Trump said...

On Monday the Israeli ambassador to the UN demanded the resignation of Peter Hansen, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, accusing him of complicity in terror. However, the story began to unravel when the agency claimed that the object in the video was too thin and light to be a missile and that a militant would be more careful in handling a crude, homemade explosive device. A day later the agency produced the driver of the ambulance in question, who said that the object was a rolled-up stretcher and his crew had been on...