Free Republic

First, the bad news: The Iran War shows no signs of ending soon. Tehran on Monday said it would suspend peace talks with the U.S. in protest of Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon. Now, the even worse news: The Iran War is linked to the Ukraine War in myriad disturbing ways, and the longer the former drags on, the more dangerous the latter becomes. Talk of “World War III” tends to be ludicrously overwrought—crafted to generate clicks and grab eyeballs on social media, rather than highlight geopolitical risks—but the connections between these two wars have, if anything, been underdiscussed....

Vladimir Putin has suffered a fresh wave of war humiliation amid warnings that his unaffordable conflict with Ukraine is pushing his economy to the brink of collapse. Russia's Finance Ministry and its central bank has projected the government's budget deficit widening to a dangerous level if the Kremlin continues at the current rate of defence expenditure, according to Bloomberg. The stark warning came as Putin suffered further setbacks on the frontline, where the tide of the war is increasingly turning in Ukraine's favour. And authorities in Crimea are urging citizens not to panic amid ongoing petrol shortages with pictures showing...

Candice Owens revealed that the US leader called her from Mar-a-Lago and told her about the French president's demandsMOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. Journalist Candice Owens told TASS that French President Emmanuel Macron informed US leader Donald Trump that he’s fed up with stories that his wife, Brigitte Macron, is a man, going so far as to say he wouldn’t sign a certain deal on Ukraine if the hate didn’t stop. "President Trump called me. That was not a tale, it's a true story. I have the phone records. And he called me from Mar-a-Lago, actually. So he says, well, you...

Iran survives by delay, deception, and deterrence games—but the moment may be coming when airpower, not diplomacy, decides how the nuclear standoff ends. The Trump administration has bent over backward to negotiate an end to Iran’s grand plans to develop nuclear weapons—before the June 2025 bombing, afterward, and again during the follow-up diplomacy of spring 2026. Yet Iran is unlikely ever to abandon its pursuit of the bomb voluntarily. With nuclear weapons, Tehran hopes to become the de facto hegemon of the Middle East. Only then could it effectively coerce or deter both Israel and the wealthy Arab Gulf states....

Avatar Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump I am appointing the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Chairman of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, William J. Pulte, to serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence. William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets, and over 10 Trillion Dollars at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, a substantial increase from where it was just 12 months ago. During this period, he will remain Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Chairman of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. Congratulations to Director Pulte! President DONALD J. TRUMP

President Trump lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel's escalation in Lebanon in an expletive-laden call on Monday, two U.S. officials and a third source briefed on the call told Axios. Why it matters: Earlier on Monday, Iran threatened to abandon the negotiations with the U.S. over Israel's actions in Lebanon. On the call, Trump called Netanyahu "crazy" and accused him of ingratitude, according to two of the sources. He also put the brakes on Israel's plan to strike Beirut. Behind the scenes: One U.S. official said Trump told Netanyahu that following through on his threats to...

Oil prices were falling early Tuesday as markets watched to see if the U.S.-Iran peace deal will proceed after President Donald Trump’s efforts to achieve a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Brent crude futures, the international standard, were down 2% at $93.06 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures were falling 1.9% to $90.32 a barrel. Crude prices rose sharply on Monday after reports out of Iran said it suspended peace talks with the U.S. due to Israel’s military actions in Lebanon. However, Trump later said talks were continuing and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called off attacks in...

"The group's leadership repeatedly expressed support for the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah." Year after year, Toronto police have allowed Muslim pro-terrorist mobs to invade and harass the Jewish community. Now, PM Mark Carney has declared that there is a “scourge of antisemitism” and plans to combat it with a DEI council. To that end, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, today announced the launch and membership of Canada’s new Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion to be chaired by the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture. The Council has a clear mission: to combat racism and hate in...

Perhaps Hezbollah finally got a whiff of utter defeat. Either that, or they just got a reprieve courtesy of Iran. If it's the latter, though, they didn't get much. Donald Trump announced this afternoon that Hezbollah has had enough in Lebanon. The group had refused to comply with the ceasefire between Israel and the civilian government in Beirut, continuing to volley missiles at civilian targets. The IDF has captured strategic points in the sub-Litani region and had warned residents in Hezbollah-controlled areas of the capital to evacuate. That's when Hezbollah sued for peace, and Trump intervened:I had a very productive...

Have you wondered what happened to Project Freedom? That was the operation President Donald Trump announced about helping ships get out of the Persian Gulf and transit through the Strait of Hormuz, in the face of potential threats from Iran. Then it was stopped, and we didn't hear much about it. Turns out it appears to have been going on, in some measure, right under the nose of the Iranian regime, without letting it be known. American forces in recent weeks have helped coordinate the passage of dozens of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. officials,...

Bartosz Cichocki returned the order due to the naming of a UAF unit after the Heroes of the UPA. In Poland, this decision was called troubling for bilateral relations. Former Polish Ambassador to Ukraine Bartosz Cichocki has returned the Ukrainian Order of Merit, which he was awarded in 2022. The reason for this step was the recent decision by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to grant one of the AFU units the honorary title "Heroes of the UPA." This was reported by RMF24, according to UNN. Details Zelenskyy explained his decision as a desire to restore the historical traditions of the Ukrainian...

US President Trump accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being the reason for global hatred of Israel in an angry call on Monday, Axios reported. Earlier on Monday, Iran had threatened to stop negotiating with the US due to Israel’s action in Lebanon, prompting the call in which Trump at one point yelled at Netanyahu, “What the f*** are you doing?” According to one US official, Trump felt that Netanyahu was reacting disproportionally to Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel. He objected to Israel destroying buildings to take out a single Hezbollah commander, and Israel’s threats against Beirut, Axios wrote. Another source...

US President Donald Trump reportedly lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call earlier today, calling him “fucking crazy” as he demanded that Israel agree to a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and claimed the premier owes him for keeping him out of jail. Axios cites a US official summarizing Trump’s message to Netanyahu as follows: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

For three months, President Trump has been deeply engaged in the Iran conflict, planning the 38 days of attack, struggling to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and proclaiming “a whole civilization will die tonight,” then backing away to declare a cease-fire and a naval blockage of Iranian ports. But on Monday, after days of haggling with Iranian officials through intermediaries on a preliminary agreement, Mr. Trump declared it was starting “to get very boring.” “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly,’’ he told Eamon Javers of CNBC when asked about reports that the Iranians, angry at continued Israeli strikes in...

An African immigrant accused of pretending to be gay to claim asylum in the US has allegedly been outed after he married a woman in Indiana. Salah Dine Habib, a native of Mauritania in west Africa, entered the US around 2023 and was arrested May 21, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Habib claimed to be homosexual on his asylum application, which in his home country is a criminal offense punishable by being stoned to death. He got a job as a taxpayer-funded corrections officer at a county jail in Portland, Indiana, after being hired by Jay County...

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The price of oil rose sharply Monday, after Iranian government-aligned media reported that the country was cutting off talks with the United States to end the ongoing war. Conflicting comments from President Donald Trump hours later did little to dent oil’s jump, although prices ended the day somewhat lower than the highs of the morning. U.S. crude oil closed higher by 5.5% at $92.16 per barrel. International Brent crude closed higher by 4.5% at $94.98 per barrel. Heating oil, a proxy for jet fuel, also rose 4%, while wholesale gas prices rose 2%. As a result of of the most...

A conservative admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump will go head-to-head in a run-off election that will decide Colombia’s next president later this month. Abelardo de la Espriella, a tough-talking lawyer and businessman, took the lead in Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday night, with about 43.7% of the total votes according to results released by the national civil registry, while Iván Cepeda, a seasoned politician from the Pacto Histórico party led by incumbent President Gustavo Petro, followed with 40.9%. Petro, however, has cast doubt on the results of the first round of voting, alleging in a social media post that...

President Trump likes his military and diplomatic victories quick, clean and decisive. (snip) But now, Mr. Trump has hit the stalemate phase of his presidency. The war with Iran is clearly at that stage. When he declared a cease-fire on April 7, Mr. Trump said on social media that the end of combat operations would be conditional on “the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.” It wasn’t. Even if commerce now resumes across the strait under a memorandum of understanding still under negotiation, it will still leave the future of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs exactly...

(The Epoch Times)—Newark, New Jersey, has issued a curfew near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility that experienced fiery protests on May 30. “Due to the escalating situation at Delaney Hall and the increasing need for police intervention, immediate action is required to protect public safety,” Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka wrote in a statement on May 31. The curfew will be in effect near Delaney Hall every night from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice, city officials said on May 31. “Individuals found in violation of this curfew will be subject to enforcement actions,” Baraka added....