Free Republic

Japan is launching a new centralized intelligence body for the first time since World War II – a controversial move that some fear deviates from Tokyo’s pacifist ideals, but one others say is much needed in a country so riddled with security weaknesses it has been called a “paradise for spies.” The National Intelligence Bureau will formally launch on Friday, replacing previous structures criticized as disjointed and ineffective – and laying the foundation, experts say, for broader changes that could include an anti-spy law and a new external foreign intelligence agency similar to the CIA in the US, or MI6...

Sweden’s left-wing parties are running Arabic-language advertisements aimed at immigrant voters ahead of this year’s elections, repeating a strategy used during the 2022 campaign. The advertisements have appeared on Al Kompis, an Arabic-language website aimed at immigrants in Sweden who cannot speak Swedish. Political parties and public authorities have previously used the platform to reach the country’s Arabic-speaking population. Among those advertising during the current campaign are the Social Democrats and the Centre Party. An advertisement featuring Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson promises greater investment in healthcare and schools. It links to a dedicated campaign page claiming that the party’s...

Hours after Trump canceled a planned strike and said the outlines of a deal had been reached, a regime-linked Iranian outlet said the strategic waterway would remain closed as long as US ‘hostile actions’ continue. Iran on Sunday denied that it had reached any agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, directly contradicting U.S. President Donald Trump hours after he canceled a planned strike and announced that the outlines of a deal had been reached. “There is no agreement on reopening the Strait of Hormuz,” Iran’s regime-linked Fars news agency reported. “As long as the United States continues its hostile...

Donald Trump said on Saturday night that the US would hold off on any new strikes on Iran provided a deal to end the months-long conflict is quickly reached – marking the president’s latest climbdown from extravagant threats to hit the Tehran regime hard. The Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump on Saturday to express concerns about his strike plans, it was reported. Trump’s reversal also came after Iran threatened to retaliate decisively against its neighbours in the event of US strikes, while Kuwait reported being hit by Iranian drones on Saturday and two ships were attacked off...

France and Italy bolstered border controls on Saturday after about 60,000 people crossed into Spain's enclave in North Africa, sparking one of the largest migrant crises for the European Union in recent years. The migrants entered Ceuta from Morocco, the enclave's regional president Juan Jesus Vivas told reporters, but by Friday evening officials said more than 48,000 had returned. To cross into Ceuta, many swam around a small border barrier that juts out into the Mediterranean. At least 34 people died in the attempt. The sudden influx sparked an international crisis. France tightened checks on its border with Spain and...

President Trump on Saturday night said he agreed to halt a planned attack against Iran – after the Islamic Republic and other Middle Eastern countries agreed to the framework of a peace deal.“The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The president said Iran and other governments in the region asked the US “to hold off any attack” because “the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.” According to Trump, the proposed...

President Donald Trump is pausing plans for a major attack on Iran, he announced on Saturday with the hopes of reviving an agreement with the country. The president was mulling whether or not to hit areas that would impact foundational elements of the Islamic Republic’s grid, as well as infrastructure, according to Axios.“The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern...

A newly published investigation highlighted issues that have long been overlooked — namely, that deals forcing Israel to release hundreds of terrorists and the unending Palestinian Authority (PA) pay-for-slay program fueled more terrorism, including the Oct. 7 atrocities. Over 650 jihadis with ties to the Oct. 7 atrocities reportedly received "pay-for-slay" payouts, while over 150 terrorists released through the U.S.-brokered Gaza "peace deal" became automatic millionaires through the same means. But years before that 2023 day when Palestinian jihadis raped, murdered, tortured, and kidnapped 1,200 innocents to enthusiastic support from Gazans, pay-for-slay was funding multiple generations of terrorists. And we’re...

In April 2026, the Russian military lost 116 km²: this is the first monthly decline recorded by the Institute for the Study of War since the summer of 2023, when the territory controlled by Moscow had reached an all-time low of 26,573 km² following Kyiv’s counter-offensive

More than 50,000 migrants rushed into Ceuta from Morocco on Friday, resulting in at least 67 deathsMigrants who swam or jumped over fences to rush into Spain's African enclave of Ceuta this week were returning home on Saturday, with many saying hunger, exhaustion and hostility from locals had crushed their hopes of a new life in Europe. The news comes as Spain announced it was erecting a 500-metre-long containment barrier on the sea border between its North African territory of Ceuta and neighbouring Morocco after more than 50,000 migrants breached the frontier earlier this week, with at least 67 dead....

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. “has not agreed” to grant Ukraine licenses to produce Patriot missile systems, apparently backtracking on one of Kyiv’s top priorities in its war against Russia.The advanced military technology is “a hard thing to give away,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, adding that a country that receives it could “someday turn on you.”“You have to be very careful,” Trump said. He said the U.S. and Ukraine are still “talking about it.”Trump’s latest comments on the war in eastern Europe came three days after he spoke at the White House...

Most migrants who entered Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta illegally from Morocco have now returned, according to the Spanish authorities. The return flow underlined the chaos that gripped Ceuta, with many migrants crossing back over the border on Friday to re-enter Morocco. “There are too many people here, everything is full,” one migrant told AFP. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said “almost all those who entered Ceuta have already returned to Morocco”. The migrants came from the Moroccan town of Fnideq, next to the Spanish enclave, arriving throughout the night by land and sea. Some crossed the high...

An improvised explosive device detonated at a restaurant Saturday in central Moscow killing two people, Russian state media said, citing local officials. The suspected bomber was also killed, officials said. At least 21 people were also injured when the IED detonated at the restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said, quoted by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. An unidentified woman who attempted to carry the explosive device into the restaurant died in the blast as did a security guard and a patron, the news agency said. Ria Novosti reported the woman attempted to smuggle the...

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has called for an urgent meeting of EU interior ministers after what he called some member states’ “selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction” to this week’s mass border crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, in north Africa. More than 50,000 people crossed into the territory from Morocco on Thursday and Friday, with at least 67 people dying in the attempt. Some drowned, while others were crushed as they tried to cross a breakwater barrier. Although more than 48,000 people had voluntarily returned to Morocco by 6pm on Friday, the influx triggered a political crisis for...

A federal judge on Friday once again blocked the Trump Administration from terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis. The termination was supposed to take effect on March 17, however, a federal judge previously halted the termination. On Friday, US District Judge Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee, issued a new administrative stay after the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint and an emergency motion. There are more than 100,000 Somalis living in the US. An estimated 5,000 Somalis are eligible for Temporary Protected Status. The Justice Department responded to the judge’s order. “Judge Allison Burroughs just entered yet another order preventing...

Aug 1 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury bought yen on Friday to support the battered Japanese currency, the Financial Times reported, marking Washington’s first yen-buying intervention with Tokyo in more than a decade as it languishes near 40-year lows. The Federal Reserve ​Bank of New York sold euros for yen on behalf of the Treasury through Goldman ‌Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the FT said, citing people familiar with the matter. The report did not indicate any amounts of yen purchased.... Earlier on Friday, the Treasury informed a number of banks that it might intervene in the yen market and that...

LOS ANGELES - Javier Ramirez was handcuffed in the back of an unmarked car, bruised and confused, when immigration agents used a word he had never heard before. It was June 2025, and they were bragging about the raids in the Los Angeles area that swept up hundreds of immigrants - and a few U.S. citizens, like Ramirez. The unfamiliar word caught Ramirez's ear.

Spain was invaded yesterday. There is no other way to put it. Close to 50,000 foreigners, mostly men, swarmed into Spanish territory and laughed and jeered as they went. Every generation before ours would have called that an invasion, and we should too. The era of euphemism is over. The left’s house of lies has fallen. We can all now see with our own eyes that our nations are being overwhelmed by cocky, often hostile men from afar. The footage from Ceuta is extraordinary – throngs of foreigners, tens of thousands, mostly men from Morocco, gatecrashed an enclave of the...

Spain's prime minister has blamed trafficking gangs after about 60,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco. At least 57 people died during the surge, according to local media. Pedro Sánchez called the incident a "violation of Spain's territorial integrity". Italy has responded by suspending the EU's border-free Schengen arrangements with Spain. The influx comes after Spain's Supreme Court ruled that migrants stopped at sea while trying to reach Ceuta or Melilla, another Spanish enclave, cannot be summarily returned to Morocco. As of Friday evening, more than 48,000 people had voluntarily returned to Morocco, Spanish...

The Pentagon is confronting a growing reality after months of fighting Iran: America's stockpile of missile defense interceptors. It is shrinking so much, military planners are weighing whether they can continue the current cycle of limited retaliatory strikes. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, using open-source budget numbers provided to Congress, estimates U.S. Patriot interceptor inventories have fallen from roughly 2,300 pre-war to fewer than 827. THAAD interceptor inventories have also dropped from 452 to fewer than 278. CSIS warns rebuilding those stockpiles could take three years or more, raising concerns about protecting U.S. forces and bases worldwide if...