Free Republic

Russia could regain its status as “a global rival” for Western powers through some degree of “integration” with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said... Putin made the comment while reiterating his belief that Ukrainians and Russians are “the same people,” a claim widely perceived as a means to justify Russian influence over former Soviet nations. His reference to “integration” is even more unusual, and incendiary, according to Western analysts, given that the two countries have been locked in conflict since Russia’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine in 2014... Multiple Western analysts noted that Putin has been pressuring Belarus...

Statement from President Donald J. Trump Regarding Turkey’s Actions in Northeast Syria

The US has told at least one US ally in the Middle East, that they have intelligence showing that the launch was “likely” coming from staging grounds in Iran, but they have not shared that intelligence yet. “It is one thing to tell us, it is another thing to show us,” said a diplomat from the region. A US official separately tells CNN that the US has assessed that the attack originated from inside Iran. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. No public evidence has been shared. What countries in the region decide to do, in reaction to the...

(Moderator, if I can't excerpt the BBC, please note) Drone attacks have set alight two major oil facilities run by the state-owned company Aramco in Saudi Arabia, state media say. Footage showed a huge blaze at Abqaiq, site of Aramco's largest oil processing plant, while a second drone attack started fires in the Khurais oilfield. The fires are now under control at both facilities, state media said. A spokesman for the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen said it had deployed 10 drones in the attacks. The military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, told al-Masirah TV, which is owned by the Houthi movement...

Boris Johnson’s fledgling ­premiership was in tatters last night after MPs kicked out his bid to call a general election to force through his no-deal Brexit. The PM suffered the defeat on only his third day in office – after Tories he brutally purged for voting against him on Tuesday joined opposition parties to reject his call for a poll. Mr Johnson had earlier lost a bid to block MPs from voting to take no-deal off the table. And it came a day after Tory rebels helped push through a debate to discuss the matter. Amid the backlash, it meant...

Boris Johnson faces a showdown in Parliament later after No 10 officials warned he would call for a snap general election on 14 October if MPs succeed in seizing control of Commons business. Rebel Tories and Labour MPs are planning a bill to stop the UK leaving the EU on 31 October without a deal. Mr Johnson said he did not want an election, but progress with the EU would be "impossible" if the MPs win. Jeremy Corbyn said the Labour Party was ready for a general election.

It sounded like a historical moment was in the offing. For the first time, Europe’s finance ministers were seriously planning on publicly denouncing tax havens by presenting a black list of countries that lure companies through tax-saving schemes. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the countries on the list were “not doing enough to fight tax evasion.” Fellow Frenchman Pierre Moscovici, the European Union’s commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, called for vigorous sanctions. […] That was one and a half years ago, and that momentum has largely disappeared. This is partly because the black list had several fundamental...

New York Times London-based reporter Ceylan Yeginsu reported on the abortion debate in Belfast under a flawlessly biased headline: “Can Northern Ireland Cling To Its Draconian Abortion Laws?” Which put in mind Barack Obama's condescending reference to working class Midwesterners who "cling to guns or religion." The online headline was also awful, albeit in a different way: "Climate of Fear: When Part of a Country Bans Abortion.” (“Bans abortion” is an odd way to describe a law that has been in place in Northern Ireland since 1861)(click "expand"): It was one of the warmest days of the year, and Ciara...

Britain will face shortages of fuel, food and medicine if it leaves the European Union without a transition deal, jamming ports and requiring a hard border in Ireland, official government documents leaked to the Sunday Times show. The Times said the forecasts compiled by the Cabinet Office set out the most likely aftershocks of a no-deal Brexit rather than the worst case scenarios. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said it did not comment on leaked documents.

“While organized crime is not a new phenomenon today, some governments find their authority besieged at home and their foreign policy interests imperiled abroad. Drug trafficking, links between drug traffickers and terrorists, smuggling of illegal aliens, massive financial and bank fraud, arms smuggling, potential involvement in the theft and sale of nuclear material, political intimidation, and corruption all constitute a poisonous brew—a mixture potentially as deadly as what we faced during the cold war.”--R. James Woolsey, Former Director of Central Intelligence and Transnational Threats Initiative Steering Committee Member. From what I’ve recently discovered, that “poisonous brew” is being served to...

How do you unite 500 million people who have fought each other for a thousand years? That is the biggest question for Europe today.  In spite of endless denials, the answer is beginning to look a lot like old-fashioned nationalism. In Europe, nationalism has a black reputation — and rightly so. It was always a kind of mass egomania, which led to repeated warfare, culminating in two world wars and the Cold War. France went wild over Napoleon around 1800 and ended up with 1.4 million dead young soldiers. Germany had Bismarck, the Kaiser and Hitler. Russia glorified Lenin and...

At http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/18/clinton.library.opening/ President Bush is quoted during the opening of the new Bill Clinton library, saying: "Visitors to this place will be reminded of the great promise of our country and the dreams that came true in the life of our 42nd president," Bush said. "The William J. Clinton Presidential Library is a gift to the future by a man who always believed in the future and today we thank him for loving and serving America."