Free Republic

In the first livestreamed vote since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, 331 lawmakers approved the bill in two back-to-back readings, with none voting against it. The law reverses legislation passed last week that effectively destroyed the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor (SAPO), two agencies founded as part of the post-EuroMaidan anti-graft reforms... ...The initial controversial bill, quickly pushed through by Zelensky's lawmakers and signed by the president on July 22, sparked mass demonstrations across the country and backlash from Ukraine's international partners... ...Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC), a watchdog, supported Zelensky's initiative,...

More than a third of Arizona’s roughly 370-mile-long border with Mexico will soon be a (new) military zone. It’s the Trump administration’s latest of four so-called National Defense Areas, known as NDAs, along the Southern Border... ...The Trump administration says Arizona’s upcoming military zone will run along a 140-mile stretch of border near the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma. About 500 Marines and Sailors will operate there, according to a spokesperson with the military’s border task force, who said specific tasks and assignment details are still under development... ...will include the Barry M. Goldwater Range, land surrounding it and...

After four decades of conflict with the Turkish state, the outlawed Kurdish PKK has held a ceremony to mark a symbolic first act in laying down its arms... ...Some 40,000 people have been killed since the conflict began, and the PKK is listed as a terror group in Turkey, the US, EU and UK. Its disarmament will be felt not just in Turkey but in Iraq, Syria and Iran... ...The Turkish government launched talks with (imprisoned PKK Leader Abdullah) Ocalan via the pro-Kurdish Dem party, and then in February came his historic appeal for the PKK to disband, read out...

US President Donald Trump has urged Hamas to accept a proposed 60-day ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, stating that Israel has agreed to the conditions. The proposal includes a call for the release of half the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and the remains of other Palestinians. Trump is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on July 7, expressing hope for a ceasefire and hostage agreement next week.

...”This statement underscores Israel’s strategy, which goes beyond neutralizing Iran’s nuclear assets and extends to undermining the political and military pillars of the regime.”... ...”Israel’s goals are clear: the campaign will only cease once Iran has dismantled its nuclear program, or when Israel has ensured that Tehran cannot rebuild it.”

Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) has gained access to sensitive data of Russia's strategic aircraft manufacturer Tupolev, a source in HUR told the Kyiv Independent on June 4... ...According to the source, HUR's cyber corps accessed over 4.4 gigabytes (GB) of internal data, including official correspondence, personnel files, home addresses, resumes, purchase records, and closed meeting minutes. "The significance of the data obtained cannot be overestimated," the source said. "Now, in fact, there is nothing secret left in Tupolev's activities for Ukrainian intelligence.

"The U.S. government has announced plans (on 22 May) to deploy more than 1,000 troops to its shared border with Mexico (in addition to the ~10,000 already in place), to “provide enhanced sustainment, engineering, medical, and operational capabilities... ...In a May 22 press release, U.S. Northern Command said “1,115 service members were approved to deploy to the Southern Border” as part of the U.S. Department of Defense’s “continued whole-of-government approach to gain full operational control of the southern border.” Northern Command, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is responsible for defending the continental United States and Alaska, while also coordinating defense...

This summer, solar power generation globally could exceed electricity from nuclear power plants for the first time ever, as solar capacity soars and sunlight and daylight hours are long in the northern hemisphere. Global solar power generation jumped by 34% in the first quarter of 2025 from the same period in 2024, according to data from Ember cited by Reuters columnist Gavin Maguire. If the pace of growth is sustained though June, July, and August, solar output is set to top 260 terawatt hours (TWh) in the summer months. This would beat the average 223 TWh of global nuclear power...

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says it has secured 60 convictions against migrants who set foot in the new National Defense Area in El Paso. The convictions came through guilty pleas entered in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The 60-foot-wide NDA running from the Texas-New Mexico state line through El Paso County near Fort Hancock, Texas, is considered an extension of Fort Bliss. “Beginning in early May, additional criminal charges were filed against individuals who illegally entered or were found illegally in the United States and who had illegally entered the National Defense Area,” the U.S. Attorney’s...

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq has formalized two major energy agreements with U.S. firms HKN Energy and WesternZagros in Washington, D.C., Kurdish media reported on Monday, in deals valued at a combined $110 billion, despite a legal showdown with the federal government of Iraq over control of the country’s oil exports... ...The deals were formalized during KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani's official visit to the United States this week... ...Washington has been advocating for the resumption of Kurdish oil exports, which have been stalled since March 2023 due to legal disputes and pipeline shutdowns. Washington's push aims...

More border wall spots could pop up should Congress give President Donald Trump the money to build 700 additions miles, 900 miles of river barriers, and 630 miles of secondary walls — part of a bigger bill that includes the White House’s proposed tax breaks and spending cuts. The House committee in charge of drafting Trump’s border security bill is asking for about $69 billion, a substantial part of which ($46.5 billion), would go to border barriers... ...House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he wants to have a vote on the issue by Memorial Day.

CBP officials are planning to construct approximately 24.7 miles of "new primary barrier" to close a gap just south of the Coronado National Forest in Cochise County... one of the few areas (in Arizona) without a border barrier.

The Trump administration is evaluating plans for the Pentagon to take control of a buffer zone along a sprawling stretch of the southern border (the Roosevelt Reservation - the first sixty feet from Mexico, in California, Arizona and New Mexico) and empower active-duty U.S. troops to temporarily hold migrants who cross into the United States illegally... ...In effect, the move would turn the buffer zone into an expansive satellite military installation.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection awarded the first (new) border wall contract of President Donald J. Trump’s second term to construct approximately seven miles of new border wall in Hidalgo County (Rio Grande Valley Sector). (several other previous contracts that had been halted by Biden, have already restarted construction) The contract was awarded to Granite Construction Co. for $70,285,846. According to a CBP release, the contract is funded by CBP’s 2021 fiscal year funds. Its purpose according to CBP is to “close critical openings in the border wall that were left incomplete due to cancelled contracts during the Biden Administration.”......

Vice President Vance said on Wednesday (5 March) he thinks President Trump is hoping to finish building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of his term in 2029. During a visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, a reporter asked Vance how he and the president would define “success” when it comes to the initiative and how much of the border needs to be “walled off” before the end of Trump’s administration. “I think the president’s hope is that by the end of the term we build the entire border wall,” the Vice President replied... ...The Vice President pointed...

Hundreds of members of Syria’s Alawite minority, including women and children, have been killed in reprisal attacks after clashes between government forces and armed remnants of the previous regime spiraled into widespread sectarian bloodshed, monitoring groups and local officials said Sunday, presenting the most serious challenge to the country’s stability since the fall of the Assad dynasty in December... The violence there escalated after a nascent insurgency, linked in part to former military figures in the Assad regime, staged a wave of attacks on government security forces last week. But what began as armed skirmishes quickly deteriorated into widespread attacks...

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise of “mass deportations” and securing the southern border, and now CBP has released numbers showing the impact... ...Between January 21 and January 31, CBP reports reveal an 85 percent decrease in apprehensions along the southwest border compared to the corresponding period in 2024. The CBP report also details how in the 11 days following the termination of the CBP One app (just hours after Trump's inauguration), inadmissible alien encounters at the border have fallen 93 percent, as compared to the 11 days prior... ...Declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border was one...

(Two years ago) Border agents (in New Mexico) were averaging 1,200 to 1,500 encounters a day and processing centers built to accommodate just over a thousand were holding more than 5,000 migrants, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, said at the time. Nine hundred to 1,000 people were being released any given day with a Notice to Appear (NTA) in U.S. immigration court, straining the resources of local nonprofits feeding, sheltering and helping those migrants get to their destination. Fast forward to Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, and things have changed. U.S. Border Patrol agents are apprehending only about 70 migrants a...

After four years, federal officials under President Trump are once again working on the construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump's new border patrol chief, Michael Banks, says the construction of the wall exemplifies the administration's "commitment to enhancing infrastructure and operational effectiveness." Banks also posted images of the construction underway in New Mexico (Deming), saying that they are working on plugging gaps in the wall that were left after former President Joe Biden stopped construction of the wall in early 2021.

In a sweeping move that halts billions in spending, President Trump’s administration has frozen the Department of Energy's (DOE) activities pending a comprehensive review of its alignment with his priorities. According to a memo from acting Energy Secretary Ingrid Kolb, the freeze affects grants, loans, procurement, studies, and even personnel decisions, effectively bringing the agency’s $50 billion budget to a standstill. Beyond bureaucratic tinkering, the halt is a direct shot at dismantling Biden-era climate policies. The DOE’s Loan Programs Office, holding $41.2 billion in conditional commitments to energy technology companies, now finds its purse strings tightly cinched… …The order mirrors...