Free Republic

China warned that it would “take all necessary measures” and retaliate against the US if any of its companies are included in the Trump administration’s new secondary sanctions targeting Iran.Companies based in Hong Kong and mainland China were among the entities targeted by the US after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “Operation Economic Outcast” on Monday to further isolate Iran. The US, however, stopped short of listing large Chinese financial institutions, with Beijing — Iran’s largest oil buyer — warning that it will do whatever it takes to protect its economic interests. *** “China has made clear on many occasions...

Dean has a sidearm which may be allowed in Canada. This is the Reichsrevolver Model 1883 with replacement cylinder pin. The group was shot with 200 grain Ultramax .44 Russian loads. They do not appear to be available any more.By Dean Weingarten | Contributing WriterThis correspondent has been considering a trip to Canada to do some research.The current Canadian government has stopped all importation of handguns for the foreseeable future.However, Canada does not classify antique guns as firearms. The requirements to qualify as an antique are strict. The handgun must have been made before 1898. The handgun may not...

Former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg supports the idea of Ukraine extending general mobilization to include women, he said in an interview with Naspravdi MAX YouTube channel on Aug. 24. In the interview, Kellogg said he considers women’s military service an important part of civic duty.

Haitian gangs killed at least 47 people and injured more than 22 in a brutal massacre inside a church on Sunday night. The Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported that the deadly church massacre occurred in Kenscoff, a hillside commune overlooking the Haitian capital city of Port-au-Prince. Per the newspaper, the neighborhood and its outskirts were under drone surveillance for several days after gangs had gained ground. Gang members opened fire inside a local church that had been serving as a shelter for displaced people. The U.N. reportedly detailed that at least 47 were killed, and more than 22 were left...

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - A U.S. military transport plane landed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport ​on Tuesday, data from the flight ‌tracking service Flightradar24 showed. The large Boeing Globemaster with the U.S. registered tail number 07-7181 had flown ​direct from Riga, in Latvia, and ​landed in Moscow at around 0700 ⁠GMT. The Kremlin said ​it had no information on the plane. The aircraft had arrived in Riga on August 23 from the ​U.S. Camp Springs airbase near Washington DC, ​data from Flightradar24 showed.

The United States on Monday formally removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move Secretary of State Marco Rubio said eliminates the final major barriers to investment and economic recovery in the country. Rubio said in a statement that he had authorized the formal rescission after a mandatory 45-day congressional notification period ended. President Donald Trump had initiated the countdown in July after confirming to Congress that Syria’s government had ceased supporting acts of international terrorism. "I have also delisted Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) designation as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT)," Rubio said Monday. "These...

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is slamming Donald Trump as a 'loser' and the 'king of bankruptcies' after the US president criticized him on social media Monday afternoon. In a post on Truth Social, Trump referred to Ford by name as 'the less charismatic, intelligence, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford." The post came hour after an interview with "The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll" in Ottawa in which Ford said that Trump could 'kiss my *ss". At a news conference in Hamilton on Monday afternoon, Ford initially said that he wouldn't respond to a 'dictator' and...

The national average price of gasoline stood at $4.05 a gallon Monday, the highest ever recorded this late in the calendar year, as escalating geopolitical conflicts on two fronts threaten to push prices even higher heading into the Labor Day weekend. In Washington, drivers are paying more than $5 a gallon throughout much of the state, well above the national average tracked by fuel price service GasBuddy. The price surge comes as President Donald Trump announced plans to launch what he described as "the most crushing economic operation" against Iran, adding fresh uncertainty to global oil markets already strained by...

TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday that U.S. trade demands confirmed Canada's fears that U.S. President Donald Trump was seeking to dismantle its auto industry, as Trump threatened new 50% tariffs on Canadian vehicles, auto parts and steel, and as Ontario Premier Doug Ford warned Canada could cut off electricity and critical minerals to the United States.Carney said Canada remained willing to negotiate, but only if Washington approached the talks as a partnership between sovereign countries. He said "an attitude at the negotiation table that Canada is a subsidiary of the United States" is "not something we're...

It was meant to be an outing for Black children in Berlin and their families, offering them an exclusive afternoon at an outdoor pool set up by a local theatre. But the plans, slated for earlier this month, had to be scrapped after they were seized on by rightwing and conservative voices to whip up outrage, leaving organisers fending off racist emails and threats. Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre said it had extended the invitation in hopes of dismantling some of the barriers that would normally keep these children away from the pool. While other groups had similarly been invited to use...

President Donald Trump on Sunday night appeared to confirm that federal immigration authorities have active or contemplated enforcement proceedings against radical “Squad” Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota over long-standing allegations of immigration fraud. Trump shared a bombshell report from Just the News revealing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to release records concerning its investigation into the Minnesota Democrat. ICE claimed that disclosing the records could interfere with “enforcement proceedings.” Trump posted the report to Truth Social Sunday evening without adding further commentary.

Washington views Quebec’s provincial language statutes—specifically Bill 96 (revising the Charter of the French Language) and Bill 109 (affirming cultural sovereignty and digital discoverability)—as unfair trade barriers and irritants that burden American companies. Bill 96: Overhauls commercial and legal language use, requiring French labeling, product descriptions, warranties, and instruction manuals, alongside trademark translation adjustments for businesses.Bill 109: Targets digital platforms and streaming services (such as Netflix and Spotify), mandating that interfaces accommodate French configurations and allowing potential local content quotas. The U.S. had issues with Canada's subsidies for French culture; the prevalence of French-language media online and even the requirement...

Iran’s supreme leader is under mounting pressure over the war — as the regime’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz weakens, cash finally starts to get tight and top political leaders publicly urge the Islamists in charge to find a way out of the conflict. The latest phase of the conflict has seen more and more ships quietly slipping through Hormuz, with nearly 200 vessels sailing through the strait last week, according to data from the UK Maritime Trade Operations Center. The flow represents a 400% spike in the last two weeks, with maritime analysts Kpler noting that the traffic...

"Dana Bash speaks with former Vice President Mike Pence about the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the renewed threat of a trade war between the U.S. and Canada, and his reaction to his former CIA briefer - a trans woman - stating that he treated her with "great dignity." ...

Nearly six months after the U.S. Navy evacuated 1,300 family members from Bahrain at the start of the Iran war, officials are saying the evacuees cannot return for the foreseeable future and should find new homes elsewhere. The evacuation has left families in limbo and forced military officials to improvise solutions for support programs that were never designed to sustain a displacement lasting this long. Some evacuees say they have spent tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket for basic living expenses. Others are sleeping on the floors of temporary housing, while their cars and furniture are stranded in...

Support for Hamas has fallen sharply, but the decline has not translated into stronger backing for the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to a new survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR). Instead, the poll points to broad distrust in Palestinian political leadership, a growing preference for negotiations over armed struggle, and an opening for alternative electoral figures ahead of legislative elections scheduled for November 28. The findings, presented by Khalil Shikaki, director of PSR, point less to a transfer of support from one established faction to another than to a broader crisis of confidence in the...

A U.S. judge on Friday struck down, opens new tab a Trump administration policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to ​applicants from 75 countries, saying that the policy exceeded Secretary of ‌State Marco Rubio's statutory authority. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan said the policy that the State Department announced in January was "patently unlawful" and ran afoul of federal ​immigration law, which explicitly stripped the secretary of state of ​authority over consular officers' processing of immigrant visas. "The Policy, which categorically ⁠prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of ​the applicant, represents a direct...

The Metropolitan Police's investigation into Lord Peter Mandelson is reportedly on the brink of collapse after US authorities ignored requests for information. The former US Ambassador faces charges of misconduct in public office over allegations he passed confidential information to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein during the 2008 financial crisis. But in order for Scotland Yard to properly investigate, detectives believe they need access to the unredacted Epstein files. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and FBI have so far ignored the Met's request for the documents, "The Daily Telegraph" reported...

President Trump's announcement on Wednesday that he was launching an "Economic D-Day" on Iran has been met with a combination of bluster and panic in Tehran. The IRGC is huffing and puffing as usual, claiming they will cut undersea cables and isolate the Arab Gulf states from the Internet, shutting down the banking system in the region. One wag even suggested that brave Revolutionary Guards soldiers, whose claim to battlefield glory is to slaughter innocent children in the streets of Iranian cities, would invade Kuwait to seize U.S. bases there. I know a few former specops guys who are licking...

The U.S. Navy’s effort to establish a new route through the Strait of Hormuz and to shuttle tankers through it under cover of darkness appears to be a success so far. A lot of preparation went into this, involving both the destruction of Iranian surveillance and naval assets as well as clearing mines the Iranians had already emplaced in the straits. The U.S. naval presence likely prevented the Iranians from mass mine-laying using dedicated ships. Instead, they turned to small boats that could carry a single mine and would simply drop it at random. As a result, Iran has no...