Free Republic

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was amongst the first to rush to blame Israel for a deadly explosion at the Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday. In the hours afterwards Trudeau reportedly called the situation “absolutely unacceptable.” Speaking in French, he told reporters that “it’s not legal” to bomb a hospital.

For the second time in his tenure, an official trip to India by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has become defined by a cascading series of gaffes, snubs and diplomatic embarrassments... After a short meeting between Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement saying that Modi spent most of the encounter reprimanding Trudeau for allegedly letting Canada become a safe haven for secessionist extremists... And all of this was before Trudeau’s aircraft broke down, stranding the Canadian delegation in New Delhi until a rescue plane could be dispatched from CFB Trenton... Trudeau had...

Madrid-based Prisoners Defenders, an NGO focused on Cuban human rights, reported that the Cuban and Russian governments signed an agreement in which Cuba would send soldiers to join the war in Ukraine. Such a development raises many important questions. The Wagner Group’s dramatic failed mutiny displayed something the Kremlin knew long ago: the group, including its leader, Yevgeny Prighozin, has become a problem for Russia, particularly on the Ukrainian front. The group had little military training and served as cannon fodder in the war. Thousands of its fighters fell in battle. Wagner was convenient to Russia, as many of its...

Cuban taxi driver Jorge Lloro is reminded of his nation's historic ties to Russia every time he gets behind the wheel of his navy blue, Soviet-era Lada. His boxy Russian-made car is one of an estimated 100,000 that were imported to the Caribbean island during the Cold War. Over the years, the fleet of Ladas arrived in Cuba as a means around the decades-long US economic embargo on the island. Now, amid a crippling fuel crisis and a dire economic outlook, the island's leadership has again turned to its old ally, Russia, for help.

Four Cuban internationals may have defected to the United States during the CONCAF Gold Cup, according to reports. Roberney Caballero, Carlos Denilson Morales, Neisser Sando and Jassael Herrera reportedly failed to show up for the team's flight from Miami to Houston after their 1-0 defeat against Guatemala in Florida on Wednesday. Since 1999, 55 football players from Cuba have defected to the United States in an effort to either further their careers or to improve their living standards. Cuban baseball star Ivan Prieto defected to the USA back in March, joining the likes of MLB stars Yordan Alvarez and Luis...

"Within ten days, the Bidens got $5.1 million from China for absolutely no reason. They got $5.1 million. In fact, they've taken tens of millions of dollars from China. And that's probably why, maybe he's not complaining about the fact that they're building military bases in Cuba. Maybe that's the reason," he claimed. Trump later went on to describe Biden as a "compromised president" and suggested that Biden’s policies were being influenced by past business dealings. "This is truly 100 times bigger than Watergate. This is a much bigger story than Watergate. That's why Biden doesn't mind that China has...

Biden administration scrambles to forestall China’s ambitions in the CaribbeanWASHINGTON—China and Cuba are negotiating to establish a new joint military training facility on the island, sparking alarm in Washington that it could lead to the stationing of Chinese troops and other security and intelligence operations just 100 miles off Florida’s coast, according to current and former U.S. officials. Discussions for the facility on Cuba’s northern coast are at an advanced stage but not concluded, U.S. intelligence reports suggest. The Biden administration has contacted Cuban officials to try to forestall the deal, seeking to tap in to what it thinks might...

"We have a son named Jesus Ernesto. The first name is for Jesus Christ and the second for Ernesto Che Guevara…an exemplary revolutionary who gave his life for his ideals.” (Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador, May 17, 2017.) “For the Chicano Movement …the Cuban Revolution of 1959 stood as a Latino revolutionary influence that told Chicanos that they could also struggle against their own internal colonized status within the U.S. and to achieve their own self-determination. Images of Fidel Castro and especially those of Che Guevara became standard for the Chicano Movement.” “Mexicans are mostly a rabble of illiterate Indians”...

Cuba's communist government has cancelled Monday's traditional May Day parade because of acute fuel shortages. Every year hundreds of thousands of people are bussed in from across the island to fill Havana's Revolution Square on International Workers' Day. It is the first time since the 1959 revolution that the celebrations have been cancelled for economic reasons. In recent weeks long queues have formed at petrol stations, with drivers often waiting for days. Earlier this month, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Cuba was only receiving two-thirds of the fuel it needs, adding that suppliers were failing to fulfil contractual obligations. While Cuba...

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN’s “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace” on Sunday that when he says the border is secure, he does not mean that people aren’t able to cross the border illegally, because “by that measure, the border has never been secure.” When asked how he can say the border is secure, Mayorkas said, “Right now, the United States has millions of jobs opening due to the economic success of this administration. We have progressed in conquering the pandemic far more than the countries to the south of Mexico, and that makes the United States an appealing place...

“Since 1976, every American president has designated February as Black History Month and endorsed a specific theme,” reports The History Channel. “The Black History Month 2023 theme, 'Black Resistance,' explores how 'African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms.'" Let’s see, among the black political prisoners who suffered longer and more horribly than did Nelson Mandela we have: Ignacio Cuesta Valle, (29 years) Eusebio Penalver, (28 years) Antonio López Muñoz, (28 years) Orestes Perez, (28 years.) Have you ever heard of any of them? Don't look for this from The Congressional Black Caucus, Black Lives Matter or...

While Americans were focused on a Chinese spy balloon making its way across the country, the Biden administration quietly released an al Qaeda terrorist radicalized by the September 11 attacks from Guantanamo Bay. The Pentagon announced on Thursday that Majid Khan, 42, was moved to Belize after spending 16 years in CIA custody. Authorities have maintained he was a close personal ally of al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who helped deliver money and transport other senior terrorists. And under Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plans, Khan would have attacked US gas stations and water reservoirs.

Elián González, the Cuban boy whose custody battle stoked Cold War-era tensions, has been nominated to serve in the island’s National Assembly, the communist-party daily Granma said Monday. The newspaper referred to González, now 29, as “representing the most worthy of the Cuban youth.” González’s nomination all but secures his post in the 470-seat National Assembly that meets several times a year to discuss proposed laws, which the body usually votes unanimously to approve. Under Cuban law, municipal assemblies nominate a single candidate to the National Assembly, which then Cubans can either ratify or vote against. Serving in the National...

Following the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden appeared to catch one Democratic senator off guard as he made a comment to him. In the minutes following the speech, Biden made his way through Democratic lawmakers when he came across Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and he suddenly stopped to speak to Menendez. “Bob, I gotta talk to you about Cuba,” Biden said. A seemingly surprised Menendez simply replied, “Okay,” before Biden continued, adding, “I’m serious.” It’s unknown what exactly Biden intended to speak to Menendez about, but the New Jersey...

Gonzalez, who became the center of an international custody battle at 5 years old, was nominated Sunday to Cuba's National Assembly. Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban national whose precarious boyhood arrival in the U.S. in 1999 prompted a fierce international custody battle, is set to become a lawmaker. Gonzalez was nominated by his local municipal assembly on Sunday to serve in Cuba's National Assembly... Gonzlaez was en route to Florida with his mother when their boat capsized on Thanksgiving 1999 and she and other migrants drowned. The boy's fate thereafter became a flashpoint in U.S.-Cuba relations. His father, a waiter named...

“Nothing could be more vicariously gratifying than Che Guevara’s disdain for material comfort and everyday desires,” read Time’s encomium to Che Guevara in 1999, hailing him among the “Heroes and Icon of the Century’ alongside, Anne Frank, Rosa Parks and Mother Theresa. In fact, the domicile Che Guevara “acquired’’ in Havana was among the most luxurious in Cuba,” wrote Cuban journalist Antonio Llano Montes about the mansion Che Guevara “nationalized” (stole at Soviet gunpoint from rightful owner and moved into) in January 1959. After a hard day at the office signing firing-squad warrants and blasting teenagers’ skulls apart with the...

In his last few days as President, Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a televised speech in which he warned the nation about the dangers of .. the “military-industrial complex” (MIC). ... Eisenhower wisely delivered his speech warning the nation about the MIC when he was leaving office .. not wanting to anger the CIA. ... written for Facui. Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the...

Norwegian Cruise Line must pay $110 million in damages for use of a port that Cuba's government confiscated in 1960, a U.S. judge ruled on Friday, a milestone for Cuban Americans seeking compensation for Cold War-era asset seizures. The decision by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami follows her March ruling that the use of the Havana Cruise Port Terminal constituted trafficking in confiscated property owned by the plaintiff, Delaware-registered Havana Docks Corp. "Judgment is entered in favor of Plaintiff Havana Docks Corporation and against Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Ltd," reads the decision. "Plaintiff is awarded $109,848,747.87 in damages,"...

The Biden administration is considering a major expansion of an asylum program that originally targeted Venezuelans, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night. Specifically, the program would widen to encompass migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti. With an eye on decreasing illegal southern border crossings, the program lets migrants from Venezuela apply for asylum from overseas and then fly to the United States. Under the proposal, that privilege would be extended to three more countries. The news comes on the heels of jarring images from El Paso on Sunday night, as an estimated 1,500 migrants poured across the Rio Grande...

A disturbing video has emerged of alleged Colorado LGBTQ nightclub shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich and his mother spewing racist slurs at fellow passengers after a flight to Denver in July. Frontier Airlines passenger Maria Martinez captured cellphone footage of Aldrich and their mother, Laura Voepel, during the heated confrontation at the terminal on July 31, KDVR reported. The clip posted by the station begins with Martinez asking Voepel about a racial slur aimed at Mexicans.