Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has decided that the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees is not immune from being sued, reversing the U.S. government’s position that the organization was protected from civil liability.The Justice Department revealed its new stance in a letter it filed in federal court in New York on Thursday as part of a lawsuit that aims to hold the agency, known as UNRWA, accountable for the Oct. 7, 2023, deadly attack on Israel by Hamas. The change in position underscores the hardened perspective toward the agency under the Trump administration following allegations by Israel that some...

Ten years ago, when President Barack Obama and other leaders reached a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program, Saudi Arabia was dismayed.Saudi officials called it a "weak deal" that had only emboldened the kingdom's regional rival, Iran. They cheered when President Trump withdrew from the agreement a few years later.Now, as a second Trump administration negotiates with Iran on a deal that might have very similar contours to the previous one, the view from Saudi Arabia looks quite different.The kingdom's Foreign Ministry issued a statement recently saying that it hoped the talks, mediated by neighboring Oman, would enhance...

50 years ago today, on April 13 1975, Palestinian terrorists opened fire on a church in Beirut, killing 4 Christians. It was the start of the Lebanese Civil War It would destroy the Christian-majority country that had been one the best and safest countries in the Middle East ... A tragic reminder of how quickly violence can destroy a once-peaceful nation. Lebanon was truly a jewel of the Middle East before extremism tore it apart. We must learn from history to prevent these devastating sectarian conflicts from repeating. ... Same plan for America. ... Islam destroys everything it touches. ......

The BRICS group of nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—has long aimed to challenge Western-controlled financial systems and reduce the world’s reliance on the US dollar. Now, that mission is getting an unexpected push, thanks to new tariff policies introduced by US President Donald Trump. BRICS Bloc Gains Momentum Amid US Trade Setbacks Trump has declared what he calls “Liberation Day,” a move that marks one of the biggest protectionist trade shifts since the 1930s. These new tariffs target both enemies and allies, and are expected to slow trade, increase prices in the US, and put brakes on global...

Iran is beating a retreat from Yemen, where it has backed the Houthi rebels, who in turn have launched missiles and drones against Israel, and have also attacked international shipping in the Red Sea, as well as western naval vessels. The reason: U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a relentless assault on the Houthis while also restoring a “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions that makes it impossible for Iran to sustain its overseas terror proxies. The UK Telegraph reported on Thursday: Iran has ordered military personnel to leave Yemen, abandoning its Houthi allies as the US escalates an air strike...

Reports this week indicated that US President Donald Trump may visit Saudi Arabia in the coming months. This is important because it would be his first trip abroad as president. It will also be a repeat of a trip he took during his first term. During his first term, in May 2017, he travelled to Saudi Arabia for the US-Arab-Islamic Summit. He met with Saudi King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during that trip, among other leaders who attended During the May 2017 trip, Trump said, “I stand before you as a representative of the American People, to...

The destruction of this rogue agency cannot come soon enough. For some years now, I have been tracking globalist initiatives at both ends: at the point where the ideological rounds are chambered and downrange where they affect the lives of millions as public policies. This has taken me from places like Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum meets annually, to cartel towns in Colombia where illegal aliens board Zodiacs bound for the Darién Gap and thousands of them simply disappear. I’ve also been tracking how USAID, the United States Agency for International Development, via a series of NGOs, has...

US President Donald Trump dug in his heels Monday over a controversial suggestion that large numbers of Gazans take refuge in Egypt and Jordan, shrugging off wall-to-wall opposition to the proposal from Arab leaders. Egyptian media on Tuesday cited government sources as saying that Trump and Sissi had yet to speak. If they did, Sissi’s office would issue a readout, the Egyptian officials told local media. The US president on Saturday floated the idea to “clean out” Gaza after more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas had reduced the Palestinian territory to what he called a “demolition...

A sudden and sweeping halt to U.S. foreign aid by the Trump administration does not apply to weapons support to Israel and Egypt and emergency food assistance, according to a memo issued by the department to bureaus and U.S. missions overseas on Friday. The same day, the White House told the Pentagon it could proceed with a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel that President Biden abruptly halted last summer to try to dissuade the Israeli military from destroying much of the city of Rafah. Israeli forces went ahead with bombing the city. The shipment has 1,800 MK-84 bombs, said...

The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has ordered a halt to virtually all US foreign aid, but made an exception for funding to Israel and Egypt, according to an internal memo to staff at the US state department. “No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved … as consistent with President Trump’s agenda,” said the memo. The sweeping order appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid – including potentially to Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in weapons under...

One good way to tell if your effort to eliminate your enemy's leadership is going well is if you blow up their new defacto prime minister before his people have had a chance to learn that the old prime minister had been blown up, too. True story. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Hamas PM Ismail Barhoum was killed in an Israeli Air Force (IAF) airstrike just five days after his predecessor (pre-deceasor?) Issam al-Da’alis was — you guessed it! — killed in an IAF airstrike. With an almost coy dryness, the Journal headline read, "Israel Is Killing Hamas...

Grok: Expressed in billions of dollars list the five countries and five corporations that will benefit most from the U.S. military activity to eliminate shipping disruptions caused by the Houthi near the Red Sea. China is 1st. 🇺🇸 isn’t in the top 5... ...

"BREAKING: Pete Hegseth answered a question about the Signal Chats: "So you're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again to include the, I don't know, the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia, or the fine people on both sides hoax or suckers and losers hoax." "So this is the guy that pedals in the garbage. This is what he does." "I would love to comment on the Houthi campaign because of the skill and courage of our troops, I've monitored it very closely from the beginning."' ...

Steven Witkoff, the Trump administration’s official envoy who had past business ties to Qatar, sat down with Tucker Carlson, the former FOX News talking head turned Qatari apologist who had recently featured Qatar’s leader, to talk about how wonderful Qatar is... Qatar is not a mediator. It’s a state sponsor of Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups. By collaborating with Qatar, Witkoff is by definition collaborating with Hamas.

Archaeologists believe they have uncovered evidence of a massive underground city lying beneath Egypt’s famous Giza pyramids. Researchers from Italy and Scotland used advanced radar technology to produce detailed images from deep below the surface, revealing possible hidden structures 10 times the size of the pyramids themselves. The report highlights eight distinct vertical, cylinder-shaped formations stretching over 2,100 feet beneath the pyramids, along with a series of additional unidentified structures located another 4,000 feet further down. However, some experts remain skeptical of the claim, insisting that such a feat would be structurally impossible. -------- Mail Online reported: Professor Lawrence Conyers,...

President Sissi said to float idea during meetings with other Arab leaders, though he has publicly rebuffed suggestions his country could take in any Palestinian refugees.Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has informed other Arab leaders that he is willing to temporarily relocate half a million residents from Gaza to northern Sinai in a designated city as part of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, according to a Friday report.According to the report in the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper, Sissi made his willingness known during meetings held by Arab leaders in recent weeks in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. There was no confirmation of...

A missile launched from Yemen has landed in Egypt about 200 kilometers from Eilat, Doron Kadosh reported on Galai Tzahal (IDF Radio) this morning (Sunday). Israel is investigating the possibility that the missile was aimed at Israeli territory, but at this stage, they cannot confirm that with certainty. The missile fell in the Sharm el-Sheikh area. The report comes after the US on Saturday evening launched several strikes that targeted Houthi defense capabilities, as well as missile and drone systems. The strikes continued overnight, as the US military attacked dozens of times in Sanaa, Saada, and Marib. .....

“This is not war. This is annihilation.” The UN won’t help them. On the contrary, they are aiding and abetting the jihad force. I am receiving hundreds of emails from people in Syria begging for help. How can the world stand by in the face of such atrocities? ... We, the Alawites on the Syrian coast, are facing extermination. Ethnic and religious cleansing is unfolding before the world’s silent eyes. They are burning our homes, slaughtering our families, and torturing our children. They rip out the eyes of our young, tear out their hearts, and leave their lifeless bodies as...

"The terrorists are killing everyone. Children, women, teenagers, old people — just killing," a Syrian Christian said in a video posted to X today. "Please, please, please — the media is not showing you anything." The slaughter isn't limited to Christians, as members of the Alawite faith are also being murdered by the forces in control of most of post-Assad Syria. To be fair, the whole sordid mess seems to have kicked off last week as Assad regime dead-enders (the Assad family is Alawite, a syncretic religion with Muslim, Christian, and other elements) with attacks that "included killings and mass...

[Manama] Officials from Arab nations approved Egypt’s $53 billion plan to rebuild Gaza on Tuesday. The plan, which Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi presented at the extraordinary summit in Cairo, aims to provide an alternative to US President Donald Trump’s plans to relocate Palestinians from Gaza and take US control over the enclave