Free Republic

Russia has effectively given up its effort to replace the dollar with the yuan in foreign trade because of U.S. secondary sanctions, Bloomberg reported. Russia began shifting aggressively to the yuan after the start of its full-scale war with Ukraine and the imposition of Western sanctions. By 2024, the currency accounted for nearly half of the country’s foreign trade settlements, became the most traded currency on the Moscow Exchange, and overtook the dollar in bank deposit volume. The situation began to shift after the U.S. tightened secondary sanctions against banks in June 2024. Fearing restrictions, Chinese financial institutions started cutting...

Beijing targets California’s tech, research and innovators in its quest for superiorityOver the last half a century, Chinese spies have taken aim at a wide swath of California targets.They have worked as a Boeing aerospace engineer and a naval engineer at defense contractor Power Paragon to obtain highly classified information on U.S. space shuttle and Navy projects. They have assumed the roles of electrical engineering professor at UCLA and software engineer at Google and even worked as a driver and aide to the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein when she chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee.Intelligence experts say that China continues...

Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun stood before a federal judge in Manhattan on October 8. He admitted to four felony counts: conspiracy to violate US export controls, conspiracy to smuggle goods out of the country, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors call the 44-year-old contractor a "fixer," a label that undersells what he's accused of actually doing. That's the headline fact. Here's why it matters beyond one contractor's sentencing: Sun was charged alongside Supermicro co-founder Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, who pleaded not guilty. Liaw's trial, originally set for November, was pushed back to March 2027 after his lawyer...

He previously said he was open to the vice president restarting talks with Tehran, but now says a deal isn’t necessary WASHINGTON—President Trump said Thursday that the U.S. didn’t need a deal with Iran and would prefer Vice President JD Vance, who has taken the lead in negotiations, work on investigating American cities run by Democrats.“I have asked Vice President Vance to focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S.,” Trump posted on social media. “We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have...

Winter is coming, and in Germany, officials are scrambling to prepare coal plants for emergency operations as gas supplies and storage levels are low. Germany has waged war on coal plants for years in pursuit of its green agenda, relying instead on gas imported from Russia and elsewhere. The nation wants to be "climate neutral" by 2045 in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Coal plants were phased out, as were nuclear plants, with the last one closing in 2023. On November 2, Clean Energy Wire reported that the nation missed winter gas storage targets to have them at least 70...

Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia. The embattled CEO resigned Thursday over reports of two extramarital affairs—one with an alleged Chinese spy, the other with a company exec who reported to him, reports the Wall Street Journal and the BBC. His scandal has rocked the world of technology given that Nvidia is vital to the AI industry and Huang is vital to Nvidia. Finance chief Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO, but the path to picking a permanent successor is murkier because Huang had no clear second-in-command. Nvidia shares fell 10% on the news, on top of earlier losses...

A Chinese university with links to the country's military bought two of Nvidia's powerful H200 AI chips last month despite being on a U.S. export blacklist, according to Reuters. Northwestern Polytechnical University purchased the chips for 874,700 yuan ($123,000) on October 21 through a local supplier, Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology, rather than directly from Nvidia. The university is among China's so-called Seven Sons of National Defense, a group of institutions with ties to military research. Based in Xi'an, Northwestern Polytechnical conducts research related to military aircraft, missiles and satellites. The H200 is one of Nvidia's most powerful processors for training...

This is an excerpt from an opinion article by former U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland. America has crossed the Rubicon with Iran. There is no going back to the world that existed before this war, no matter how much we might wish otherwise. We have attacked Iran’s military infrastructure, inflicted enormous damage on its economy and demonstrated that the United States is prepared to use overwhelming force. Now, at precisely the moment when we have gained the upper hand, Washington seems increasingly preoccupied with how quickly we can declare victory, bring down gasoline prices and move on.

brief: Ukraine is seeking long-term Western funding to maintain an 800,000-strong army after the war to deter future Russian aggression. The proposal contrasts sharply with Moscow’s demands to limit Ukraine’s military, including a 2022 proposal to cap its forces at 85,000 troops. Trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi are also addressing NATO-style security guarantees and Europe’s future security architecture. Ukraine has asked its Western allies to finance an 800,000-strong army for at least 10 years after the war with Russia ends, seeking to deter another Russian invasion. The request was raised during discussions on security guarantees at trilateral talks between Ukraine,...

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wanted Vice President JD Vance to focus “his complete and total attention” on any crime and corruption in Democratic-run US cities, saying that effort could save more money than a deal with Iran. “Our Budget could be quickly BALANCED with the correction of this large scale criminal activity. CORRUPTION is in the Democrat Leadership’s blood!” Trump wrote on social media. “We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!” Vance has participated recently in outreach...

Australian drivers have increasingly turned to electric cars, with EVs' share of new car sales having tripled in the past year. Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries figures reported by 7NEWS put battery EVs at 23.1% of new car purchases in October, compared with 7.3% a year earlier. Over that span, every Australian state and territory recorded growth in EV sales. Tesla alone notched 4,050 sales, a 342% increase from the previous October, while sales of gas and diesel vehicles declined. Peter Khoury, the NRMA head of media, pointed to growing frustration with fluctuating fuel costs as the primary reason for...

WHY RUSSIA'S YAKOVLEV FACED A BANKRUPTCY PETITION DESPITE STATE BACKING Russian aircraft manufacturer Yakovlev , responsible for the MC-21 and SJ-100 passenger jet programs, is facing a bankruptcy petition filed by a steel supplier over unpaid debts. The case has attracted attention because the company is controlled by the Russian state and plays a central role in the country's efforts to replace Western-built commercial aircraft. The Moscow Arbitration Court accepted the petition from Izhstal, a steel producer belonging to the private Russian industrial group Mechel, on October 30. A hearing has been scheduled for January 18, 2027, when the court...

Regime plots against top U.S. officials and air bases proliferate. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s move from his home to a U.S. military base, reportedly following Iranian threats on his life, is part of a much larger story. Iran’s regime has been hunting top U.S. officials. It was true before the current war and nobody should expect that a deal to end the war will make it go away.On Tuesday the FBI added Shahram Poursafi, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operative accused of plotting to murder John Bolton, to its most-wanted list. Reward: $20 million. Mr. Poursafi was first charged...

El Salvador's efforts to combat gangs in Haiti brought a rebuke from a U.S. diplomat despite President Trump openly supporting El Salvador. According to Axios, a diplomatic note was sent to El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, criticizing El Salvador's military efforts in Haiti and said they needed to coordinate with the United Nations-supported Gang Suppression Force (GSF). "His attitude was, 'What the f*ck? I checked with Trump. He said do what we have to do, and some bureaucrat is fighting this?'" a source who spoke with Bukele told Axios. Haiti has a weak government and has been battling with gangs...

Three men have been arrested after protesters pelted objects at former President Joe Biden outside a university in Dublin, police in Ireland said Wednesday. Videos showed protesters, some waving Palestinian flags, chanting “Blood on your hands” and scuffling with police officers outside Trinity College Dublin on Tuesday, as he attended a ceremony honoring his son Hunter Biden, alongside former first lady Jill Biden. White liquid, believed to be milk, could also be seen flying through the air toward the group. Hunter Biden was being honored by its traditional Hist debating society, which dates back to 1770. Previous recipients of the...

The 41-year-old man was arrested “as part of an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing” near the ⁠city of Gloucester, ​in the west ⁠of England, British police said. LONDON — A senior U.S. Army soldier was arrested in the U.K. on suspicion of assisting Russian intelligence, British police said Tuesday. The 41-year-old man was arrested “as part of an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing” near the ⁠city of Gloucester, ​in the west ⁠of England, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement, adding that he remained in custody at a police station in London. He was ​arrested ⁠on suspicion of ‌offenses under...

President Donald Trump defended the war in Iran and said it will be over "soon" during his Veterans Day address on Wednesday. Trump made the statement while speaking to a crowd of veterans and their families at Arlington National Cemetery. He highlighted the 1983 Iran-backed bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and argued that Iran has been at war with the U.S. for decades. "America did not start a war with Iran. Iran has been waging war on America since 1979. They should have been taken care of a long time ago," Trump said. "And it was...

Military officials from China and the United States met at a ceremony in Chengdu, China on Tuesday for the ceremonial return of the remains of American airmen who were killed during Himalayan supply missions in World War II. The ceremony was the culmination of decades of effort by American and Chinese officials to locate all of the air crews who died while flying “The Hump,” a supply route from India to southwestern China that was crucial for Chinese and American forces fighting against Imperial Japan. Japanese forces were able to cut off the land supply routes through Burma in the...

France said on November 9 that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was responsible for a cyberattack last month that disrupted refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Paris had summoned Iran’s ambassador and would seek European-level sanctions against those judged responsible. The Associated Press and ABC News Australia reported the announcement.French authorities attributed the October 11-12 operation to Shahid Kaveh, which officials described as an offensive cyber unit linked to the Revolutionary Guards’ electronic and cyber apparatus. The attack remotely altered refrigeration controls, forcing supermarkets to discard spoiled food; French reporting said roughly 700...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently moved out of his home and onto a military base after Iranian threats against his life, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. U.S. officials concluded in recent weeks that Iranian plotting against current and former American officials had reached a more advanced stage, based in part on intelligence about threats to Mr. Bessent, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive information. Since August, Mr. Bessent has led an economic pressure campaign meant to isolate Iran financially through tougher sanctions and restrictions on trade routes. That...