Free Republic

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has announced that he is stripping his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest state honour. Nawrocki made the decision in response to Ukraine naming a military unit after the controversial World War Two Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In a video posted on X on Friday evening, Nawrocki stressed that the decision to withdraw the honour "is not directed against the Ukrainian nation" and "does not signify a change in the strategic direction of Poland’s security policy". He also underlined that Poland’s support for Ukraine in its war with Russia remains...

According to a new report from the Department of Homeland Security, members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp attempted to smuggle themselves into the United States under the guise of the Iranian World Cup team.the northern border, says Secretary Mullin. Iran reportedly attempted to smuggle members of the IRGC into the US as part of their World Cup team according to US homeland security.— WarMonitor🇺🇦🇬🇧 (@WarMonitor3) June 21, 2026🚨 Iran’s Islamist Terror Regime tried to sneak IRGC-linked operatives into the US as part of the Iranian World Cup delegation, says Homeland Security Secretary @SecMullinDHS.There has also been an influx of...

The right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella has narrowly won Colombia's presidential election, according to the initial vote count, marking a dramatic shift in how the government will tackle the country's internal armed conflict and violence. Espriella, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, has pledged a military crackdown on illegal armed groups, drug trafficking and crime. He appeared to defeat the left-wing Iván Cepeda, a close ally of the president, Gustavo Petro. Reacting to the result, he said "today begins a new stage for our country, a stage built on the free and democratic will of millions of citizens who...

The Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer and self-styled “outsider” Abelardo de la Espriella has won Colombia’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda. With 99.98% of ballots counted in the preliminary vote tally, De la Espriella had secured 12.95m votes, or 49.66%, just 249,901 more than Cepeda, who received 12.7m votes, or 48.7%. A further 1.6% of ballots were cast blank. The margin was narrower than in the first round three weeks ago, when De la Espriella had beaten Cepeda by 673,000 votes. De la Espriella’s victory marks a sharp swing back to the right after four years under Colombia’s...

June 21 (UPI) -- The Russian government on Sunday halted fuel sales to civilians and businesses not considered vital to functioning and security in Crimea. Sergey Aksyonov, the governor of Crimea, announced people would be turned away from gas stations amid a fuel shortage and logistical difficulties related to the war with Ukraine, the BBC reported. "Further decisions regarding the current situation in the republic's fuel market will be announced at a later date," he said in a post on Telegram. The announcement came amid new attacks by Ukraine on energy and transportation infrastructure on the Crimean Peninsula, Politico reported....

Tashkent looking for more control over mining-sector value chain.Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan are strengthening economic connections, signing a variety of agreements covering mining, banking and tourism. Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ali Asadov, presided June 16 over a signing ceremony in Tashkent of a cooperation agreement under which the two countries will jointly develop an Uzbek gold deposit as well as other mineral resources. Ural Yusupov, Uzbekistan’s deputy mining minister, previously indicated that Tashkent was intent on conducting comprehensive surveys of precious metal deposits in the Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya regions, along with critical mineral deposits in Karakalpakstan...

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that President Trump will take military control of the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S.-Iran framework agreement falls apart, escalating the administration's rhetoric on the same morning Vice President JD Vance landed in Switzerland for talks with Iranian negotiators."If this deal fails, Trump is going to take the strait over by force," Graham said on CBS's Face the Nation. "The United States will control the strait. We will charge a fee for those who go through."The comments came hours after Trump floated the same idea on Truth Social, saying that if the...

The Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein announced that he would veto an attempt to legalize abortion in the country. In February, a committee in the Principality of Liechtenstein launched a popular initiative to decriminalize abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The initiators have also demanded that the ban on providing information on abortion be lifted and that health insurance cover the cost of an abortion. Hereditary Prince Alois of Liechtenstein announced that he would veto it once the Landtag, the Parliament of the principality, passed a law decriminalizing abortion. In an interview with Liechtensteiner Vaterland on Wednesday, he was...

Israelis overwhelmingly view the war with Iran and the subsequent deal between Tehran and the United States in a negative light, with 92.1 percent of Israelis believing the Islamic Republic to have won, according to a survey published Sunday. The poll of 3,644 respondents, conducted between June 17 and 20 by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in collaboration with the Agam Institute, paints a stark picture of public sentiment following the US-Iran deal. The survey found that even among voters who support the right-wing bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 93.1% believed Iran had won. Furthermore, 82.9% of respondents...

US President Donald Trump warned Iran to stop supporting proxies in Lebanon, warning that he could resume strikes on the country should they fail to do so in a Sunday Truth Social post. "Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble," Trump wrote, implying Hezbollah. "If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again," he added. Additionally, Trump warned Iran not to close the Strait of Hormuz in an overnight conversation, Fox News reported Sunday. "You close it, and you won't have a country," Trump said he told Iranian officials, according to the Fox News...

MAJDAL ZOUN, Lebanon — Buried beneath a hilltop village in southern Lebanon, just kilometers from the Israeli border, the Hezbollah terror group built an underground drone “airbase” from which it launched Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles at Israel. The subterranean facility, guarded by massive steel blast doors, was built in the past decade with direct Iranian assistance, including planning and funding, Israeli military officials told The Times of Israel during an organized media tour of the site last week. Journalists were brought into Lebanon at dusk, so that the visit to the tunnel would take place under the cover of darkness...

Donald Trump says Keir Starmer will resign as PM after he "failed badly" on immigration and energy

French President Emmanuel Macron has shot down the idea of backing a collective European project to establish illegal migrant return hubs outside the bloc, after the EU Parliament paved the way earlier this week. Claiming that it is contrary to the supposed values of “Europe”, President Macron said that France will not agree to fund any EU migrant return hubs, nor will Paris seek to partner on an individual basis with a third-party country, as it will be allowed to under the new returns regulations passed on Wednesday in Strasbourg. Rather than allowing illegals to remain in EU nations while...

Mustafa Al-Muizzawi made antisemitic remarks on live television after Lionel Messi avoided punishment for a controversial tackle in Argentina’s win over Algeria, claiming ‘the Jewish lobby controls the world’.

Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, advised Donald Trump not to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, having called the Ukrainian president a “little f**ker”, a “special-needs child” and “Mr Bean on crack”, according to a new book. The suggestion that a US cabinet official described a world leader in such terms is included in Regime Change, a blockbusting account of the second Trump administration by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, set to be published worldwide on Tuesday. News of Bessent’s alleged remarks may embarrass the Trump administration, although the meeting that did take place...

The Islamic Republic of Iran has announced that they have closed the Strait of Hormuz. The reality on the ground shows that ships continue to travel through the waterway unimpeded, with U.S. naval assets in the region confirming that the Strait is completely open.Despite the announced closure of the Strait of Hormuz by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Navy (IRGC-N), vessel traffic appears to be continuing, with several vessels using both the Iranian and U.S. announced traffic separation schemes. pic.twitter.com/05fjVSSaYE— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 20, 2026🚨 JUST NOW: Iran caught LYING that they "closed" the Strait of Hormuz againCENTCOM: "Commercial ship...

Ever since the May 7 Labour wipeout in the local council elections - elections, mind you, that British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer knew he was on course to get savaged in, so tried mightily to cancel or postpone for one flimsy reason or another until taken to court by Nigel Farage's Reform UK - Starmer has heard what might be described as the ticking of the clock in Capatin Hook's crocodile following him around.The ticking only got louder as Labour ministers resigned either in disgust that Starmer himself had not at the election losses the party had suffered. A...

On Saturday, Vice President JD Vance departed on Air Force Two for Switzerland, to be a part of the negotiations with the Iranian leaders to solidify the terms of the end of the Iran conflict in the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) and to further shore up the tentative ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. According to VP Vance, special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have been on the ground in Switzerland in preparation for the talks to resume on Sunday.Vice President JD Vance is wheels up from Washington, D.C., en route to Switzerland 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/uEeFTnx5Dn— Luke Schroeder (@VPPressSec) June 20,...

Video Transcript SummarySummary of the UK Rape Gang Inquiry Report DiscussionThe transcript is a detailed, hours-long reading and commentary on the independent Rape Gang Inquiry Report (released around mid-2025, led by MP Rupert Lowe with survivor Sammy Woodhouse and others). It examines the systematic grooming, rape, trafficking, torture, and exploitation of vulnerable girls (overwhelmingly white British, often young teens or preteens) by organized networks, primarily Pakistani Muslim men, across Britain.Core FindingsScale and Nature: The report estimates at least 250,000 victims (likely an underestimate) over decades, starting in the 1950s–1970s and accelerating with mass immigration post-1997. Crimes occurred in at least...

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir openly called for genocide, demanding that all of Lebanon “must burn” while the United States works to end the war with Iran. Ben-Gvir issued a scathing rebuke of the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) negotiated between Iran and the United States after Israel says four of its soldiers were killed in Southern Lebanon in an attack by Hezbollah — although some reports suggest Israel and Lebanon have subsequently agreed to a new ceasefire late Friday morning. In his statement, Ben-Gvir said the goal should be to indiscriminately “obliterate” Lebanon. “For every tear of...