Free Republic

On September 13, 1985, Saudi oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani announced that his country would stop propping up the price of crude. Prices collapsed, and the Soviet Union lost roughly $20 billion a year in hard currency—“money without which the country simply could not survive,” in the estimate of Yegor Gaidar, later Russia’s acting prime minister. Gaidar dated the collapse of the Soviet Union to that announcement. Tehran is now in a weaker position than Moscow was in that autumn. The Islamic Republic is exporting almost no oil, its currency has lost nearly a third of its value since March,...

A police union spokesman in Ceuta, the Spanish territory in North Africa that Moroccan and other Muslim men have completely overrun, says that reported crimes have spiked by a mind-blowingly high number since the invasion began. There are countless reports of rape, property damage, and assault out of Ceuta. Moroccan authorities not only sent intelligence plants into Ceuta; the indication is that they deliberately sent numerous criminals, including literal murderers and convicted terrorists.

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen continues to dominate the field of prospective presidential candidates to replace Emmanuel Macron in next year’s critical election, which is set to define French and European politics for years to come. With just eight months left before voters in France head to the polls to select their next president, a survey conducted by Elabe has found that three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is on course for a historic victory, besting all current opponents in both rounds of voting. Depending on the composition of the first round, the pollster predicted that the National Rally...

The US Central Command shared a video in which Admiral Brad Cooper, the combatant command's Commander, shared recent " milestones" the US military has reached during its war on Iran. Among these, he mentioned extensively the US military operations which cleared sea mines from shipping lanes and more broadly spoke of the claimed effectiveness of the naval blockade the US re-imposed in mid-July on Iran.

The U.S. military, in conjunction with Ecuadorian officials, boarded and later sank a vessel on Friday allegedly used as a refueling station for drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, according to U.S. Southern Command. The vessel, which was in international waters near Ecuador, was allegedly used as a floating ship-to-ship refueling station for drug boats belonging to the Los Choneros organization. The ship was boarded by Marines and sailors from the USS San Antonio and cleared without incident, SOCOM said. The people taken off the boat were then taken to Ecuador, and the U.S. sank the boat with an...

Imagine for a moment that you are a terrorist, and you had a large number of rockets, guns, rifles, ammo, explosive devices, and grenades on hand, and more coming in all the time. Where would you store it all? Hamas recently came up with an answer to this question that would confuse and distress its leftist American supporters who have swallowed all the nonsense the establishment media propaganda outlets have inundated us with over the last quarter-century, about how Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance, and Muslims only resort to violence when they’re fighting back against oppression. That’s...

FBI agents also didn't tell the Al Qaeda leader he could call a lawyer. Using the Article III system to try Al Qaeda terrorists was a reasonable solution, the trouble is that military tribunal personnel in this century look nothing like the guys who took a smoke break and sentenced Nazi saboteurs to death during WWII. Their ideal is A Few Good Men, they’re liberals if not outright leftists, and they’re far more likely to be on the side of the terrorists than to be on our side. The few Islamic terrorists whom Obama and Biden didn’t free from Gitmo...

More than 113,000 Russians crossed into Georgia via the Upper Lars checkpoint last week amid growing fears the Kremlin is preparing to announce a new mobilization wave, Politico reported on Aug. 28. The spike in border crossings comes as the Kremlin undertakes increasingly aggressive recruitment measures, expands data collection on military reservists, and broadens the mandate for the National Guard, all of which have fueled speculation of an imminent call-up. Earlier, Ukraine's Presidential Office issued a warning on Aug. 27, saying that Russia plans to mobilize 600,000 recruits over 2026 and 2027, with 300,000 to be called up this year...

On Friday, August 7, 2026, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey signed a defense agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, referred to by many as a “(Sunni) Muslim NATO.” U.S. president Donald Trump praised the agreement without considering the consequences for America or its ally Israel, as well as how Greece and India would react to this deal. In a post shared on social media, Trump said he was “very happy” that the three countries had signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, adding that it showed the Middle East was “coming together” and would allow countries to defend themselves “in a more...

China has removed two top generals from its highest military command body and expelled two other senior commanders from a Communist Party-controlled legislature, as turbulence continues within the upper echelon of the country's armed forces.Once China's No. 1 general, Zhang Youxia, has been removed from the national Central Military Commission (CMC), according to a brief statement issued by the National People's Congress Standing Committee via state media Xinhua on Aug. 28.The statement didn't offer any reason for the swift dismissal of Zhang, who had served as vice chair of the national CMC since 2018.Zhang, also a member of the Chinese...

I reported on Thursday that there was a massive deal in the offing to acquire an interest in Venezuela's oil fields that could help guarantee our energy security. Now, both President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have weighed in, saying they pulled it off and the deal is official. Trump said in a Truth Social post that they'd secured "majority control" over 65 billion barrels; it "more than doubles" our reserves and will "substantially lower gas prices." 🚨 BREAKING NEWS pic.twitter.com/vkRV9oOetV— Department of State (@StateDept) August 28, 2026BREAKING NEWS: The United States of America has just entered...

The U.S. military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, a U.S. defense official in Europe and a NATO official told The Associated Press, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in NATO countries to a potential Russian attack. The U.S. defense official said the most concerning shortfall involves Patriot missile interceptors, which can shoot down Russia’s high-speed ballistic missiles. The NATO official confirmed the low inventories of Patriots among American and NATO forces in Europe. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters. In the...

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. has entered an agreement with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of the South American country’s oil reserves. Trump in a social media post announced the agreement he said was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez. “The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!” Trump wrote.

Leslie Poles Hartley famously dubbed the past “a foreign country.” This summer, for the first time, I sensed that the present can be one too. My annual visit to the land of my childhood and youth exposed me to a culture very different from the one that nurtured me. Growing up as a grammar schoolboy in 1970s and ’80s England, I absorbed the importance of personal restraint; emotional self-control in public; privacy; acting with honesty and fairness, even to one’s own hurt; and respecting others regardless of their social status or opinions. At the level of society, such personal values...

Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski stated at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Warsaw does not want allied nuclear weapons stationed on its soil, according to Politico on August 27. This statement represents the most explicit position expressed by Polish authorities on the matter to date. Zalewski emphasized that while Poland intends to remain an active participant in NATO's collective nuclear deterrence framework, that role does not require physical deployment of nuclear warheads within Polish borders. “I would like to state clearly and openly: Poland does not want to have nuclear warheads on its territory. We want to participate in...

The official in charge of President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for Gaza criticized Israel on Wednesday for its attacks on the war-battered Palestinian territory and warned that the alternative to the U.S. proposal is the next war. Nikolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace high representative, insisted to the U.N. Security Council that Trump’s 20-point plan has not stalled and “has moved from the negotiating table to the engineering table.” The militant group Hamas has agreed to the proposal’s key provision to disarm and turn Gaza over to civilian rule, he said. But Israel’s ongoing strikes since last October’s ceasefire are...

The Global Government Affairs team over at X dropped a bombshell Thursday night, revealing that the X Safety team had uncovered proof positive of a foreign influence campaign targeting the build out of AI and data centers in the United States. It turns out that, after launching an investigation, the team uncovered a massive bot farm consisting of roughly 200,000 "suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts," including hundreds that appear to have been trying to manipulate debate in the U.S. over artificial intelligence, data centers, and the associated energy costs. ... According to X, about 200 accounts within the bot farm network...

Hundreds of Ceuta residents blocked Red Cross vehicles carrying food to illegal migrants on Thursday, 27 August, before pushing through police lines, dismantling makeshift settlements and setting migrant encampments on fire, as anger over the thousands who remain in the Spanish enclave after July’s mass invasion spilled into a third consecutive day of unrest. The confrontation began near Benítez beach, where residents sat across the road for more than two hours to prevent Red Cross vehicles from reaching El Trampolín, one of the principal improvised migrant camps. Protesters carrying Spanish and Ceuta flags demanded the illegal migrants’ removal, chanting ‘Ceuta...

King Harald V of Norway, Europe’s oldest monarch, has died at the age of 89, after 35 years on the throne. Harald is succeeded as monarch by his son Haakon. He leaves his wife of 57 years, Queen Sonja, two children, and five grandchildren. His granddaughter Ingrid Alexandra now becomes heir to the Norwegian throne. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said, “a whole nation is in mourning” after Harald’s death, with the people of Norway “left with a deep sense of gratitude for a long life in the service of Norway.” The government declared a national period of mourning,...

We reported earlier on 14 recent wins that are going to help the country, from immigration actions to economic actions. But now there's a new report from two U.S. officials about a deal that's in the offing. "Calling this deal huge would be an understatement," one of the officials said. "It is massive."The Trump administration is in talks with Venezuela's interim government about taking an ownership stake in the South American country's enormous oil resources, two U.S. officials tell Axios.Why it matters: The historic deal would more than double U.S. oil reserves by drawing from a country that has the...