Free Republic

US President Donald Trump came close to ordering a new American military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen this weekend, after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally urged him to intervene, but called off the planned strikes as they were nearing execution, The New York Times reported. According to the report, Trump had spent roughly two weeks weighing repeated Saudi appeals for US military assistance against the Iran-backed Houthis, whose renewed offensive has expanded the conflict in Yemen and increased pressure on Saudi Arabia. Reuters separately reported Monday that Washington had considered strikes after renewed Saudi appeals but that...

With as many as 300 Americans detained in China, where some are subjected to sexual abuse and torture, Rep. Chris Smith is demanding that President Trump make their release a centerpiece of his upcoming summit with China’s President Xi Jinping. The New Jersey Republican, who co-chairs the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, warned that quiet, piecemeal diplomacy has only emboldened Beijing to keep taking American hostages. Mr. Smith, who has been chairing hearings with witnesses testifying about people imprisoned and persecuted by the Chinese government, told The Washington Times that China “only recognizes strength.” He cited his 1994 meeting with Chinese...

Threats to the Red Sea have shut the kingdom’s workaround DUBAI—Saudi Arabia spent months rerouting oil across the desert to circumvent the Strait of Hormuz. Now, with its Red Sea bypass route disrupted by attacks, the world’s oil kingpin is having to return to the waterway it was trying to avoid in the first place.Saudi Aramco, the country’s state-controlled oil giant, is loading more oil onto tankers in the Persian Gulf and then taking its chances sending them through the Strait of Hormuz. The company has told several of its customers in Asia—its most important oil market—to pick up shipments...

Nine protesters blocked access to Elbit Systems’ factory in Staffordshire by attaching themselves to five ‘lock-ons’ to launch the direct-action group ‘Silence Elbit Drones’. Al Jazeera spoke with spokesperson Audrey Corno, who said the group aims to disrupt Elbit’s operations over its supply of military equipment to Israel.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ​on Monday for a first chat between two of ‌the biggest names of the political left in the Americas ahead of key elections in both Brazil and the United States. Lula is in ​the US for the United Nations General Assembly ​and received Mamdani in an Upper East Side house ⁠that serves as the residence and office of the Brazilian ​representation to the UN. Lula said in a brief declaration to ​reporters after the meeting that the two talked about problems that are common to both...

The U.S. diplomat arrived in West Africa in mid-June with little fanfare, hopscotching along the Atlantic coastline for scheduled visits with senior government officials in the Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Togo and Gabon, whose president greeted him inside an opulent seaside palace. The American, a career State Department official named Christian Ehrhardt, was an unlikely diplomatic VIP. For nearly two decades, he served as an officer in the agency’s security branch, focusing on embassy protection, before being summoned to Washington last year to lead a new initiative — the Office of Remigration. Since then, Ehrhardt, 41, has crisscrossed Africa, trying...

Attorney General Ken Paxton says he has successfully shut down a Houston “birth tourism” center following his lawsuit against the operation. De’Ai Postpartum Care Center was accused of operating an illegal scheme that imported foreign nationals to give birth for U.S. citizenship. The center catered to Chinese nationals, communicating with clients through Chinese social media and websites. It claimed responsibility for 1,000+ American-born babies. The operation went beyond providing its four residential locations. It “coached foreign nationals on how to evade immigration restrictions, including advising women to apply for visas ‘before pregnancy’ to avoid detection,” according to the Office of...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government will introduce legislation to limit the number of foreign students in classrooms and ban full-face coverings in schools. Appearing on Sunday at the Fenix, the annual national youth festival organised by Gioventù Nazionale, the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, told her student supporters that Italian children should not become a minority in their own classrooms. “It’s unthinkable that in an Italian classroom, Italian children feel cornered because they’ve become the minority. It can’t be done,” she said, according to Corriere della Sera. The Italian premier said her Council...

I want to set the tour drama aside for a moment, because underneath the chanting and the flags is a premise nobody in that crowd seems to have actually examined: free Palestine from what, exactly, to become what, exactly? There has never been a sovereign Palestinian state. Not once, not ever, not under any government, any constitution, any flag flying over internationally recognized borders. The land in question passed from the Ottoman Empire to the British Mandate to a 1947 partition plan the surrounding Arab nations rejected outright, choosing war instead. From 1948 to 1967, the West Bank sat under...

NATO endorsed an agreement between the US and Denmark to expand Washington's military presence in Greenland, potentially forestalling President Donald Trump's demands to take over the Arctic territory. The agreement provides a potential US veto power over Russian and Chinese investments on Greenland, makes permanent Washington's military presence, and allows for more US bases. The deal notably falls short of American ownership — an earlier demand by Trump that had strained NATO to its breaking point. The deal should "begin the process of healing," Atlantic Council experts said, though the specter of US aggression against treaty allies kicked off a...

BERLIN — Germany’s embattled Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his conservatives suffered a second major defeat to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a regional vote Sunday — a result Merz conceded was a “disaster.” But the chancellor moved to quickly quell a rising storm of speculation that he would move to step aside following the loss, which comes only two weeks after another historic defeat to the AfD in a regional contest. He appeared before cameras just minutes after the polls closed Sunday to say he would continue to push through his reform agenda and act as an anchor...

The Great Greenland Crisis has ended, and Donald Trump has declared victory. Last Friday, the president announced that he had reached a deal with the Danes that would give “the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns.” The barren, icy prize is finally ours. Or is it? Despite the usual bluster, bravado, and social media posts showing Greenland colored in with the Stars and Stripes, Trump’s avowed aim of annexation was not accomplished. The Dannebrog will still flutter in the Arctic breeze. According to a statement put...

Investing.com -- Saudi Aramco has informed at least two oil refining customers in Europe that they will receive no crude oil next month following an attack on the kingdom's main pipeline to the Red Sea, according to a report from Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter...

Britain is facing a potential slavery reparations lawsuit from Caribbean nations. The issue is due to be raised at the Commonwealth summit hosted in Antigua in November, which the King is set to attend. The Caribbean Community group confirmed last week it was 'preparing to advance reparations on the agenda of the upcoming 28th Commonwealth heads of government meeting'. Member countries have long demanded trillions in compensation for the slave trade, described by the UN this year as 'the gravest crime against humanity'. Britain abolished slavery in 1834 throughout most of its empire, decades before the US did so. The...

Dramatic recent advances by the Iran-backed Houthis, including the seizure of a strategically important island in the Red Sea, have dealt another blow to a region reeling from the US war with Iran and exacerbated an already severe global energy crisis. But neither the US nor its key ally Saudi Arabia has a clear plan to beat back the group, multiple sources told CNN, leading many in the region to ask where the counteroffensive will come from.Although US officials acknowledge the Yemeni rebel group is advancing with the goal of ultimately asserting control over the critical Bab al Mandeb Strait,...

Administration prepares sweeping sanctions that would cut the court off from much of the global financial system The Trump administration is preparing to impose sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court, according to officials, a sharp escalation in Washington’s efforts to dismantle the institution after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The sanctions would forbid most transactions with the ICC after a grace period of six to seven months, according to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal and U.S. officials. That could potentially cripple the court by prohibiting it from conducting transactions in U.S. dollars,...

Defying Iran and heading through the Strait of Hormuz is a gamble. But like all the best gambles, it is a lucrative one, so crews are inclined to fancy their odds. To counter the high insurance costs for buyers, countries such as Iraq and Qatar have been offering crude oil at steep discounts. “People just assume one ship in 12 or one ship in 15 is going to get hit by an Iranian drone, but you make enough money on the rest of them,” said Rory Johnston, founder of the market research firm Commodity Context.

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) continues to greatly exaggerate the extent of Russian advances across the frontline to construct a false narrative of Russian battlefield progress for domestic and international audiences... The Russian MoD claimed on September 19 that Russian forces have seized over 5,300 square kilometers and more than 220 settlements in Ukraine since the start of 2026, including over 670 square kilometers and 27 settlements so far in September 2026. ISW has observed evidence to assess that Russian forces have seized only 147.7 square kilometers and 40 settlements, but have lost a net of 20 settlements in...

Embattled German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has vowed to stay on despite exit polls in two local elections suggesting damaging defeats for his centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. In the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the party was projected to only just scrape into parliament, while the AfD was on track to win the most votes. Merz called the result "a disaster" for his party. In Berlin, the ruling CDU was also expected to be beaten by Die Linke (The Left). Merz is under mounting pressure, with poor approval ratings and rumours he could even be replaced mid-term in a so-called...

Iran’s central military command said in a statement on Sunday that it had received information that the United States, with the backing of some regional countries, was preparing to resume military actions against it, state media reported. The statement said that any US attack would trigger sustained strikes on US bases and interests in the region, warning that regional countries supporting US aggression against Iran would be considered parties to the conflict. On Saturday, Al Jazeera cited Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei as saying in an interview that Iran had conveyed to mediators its conditions for re-engaging in negotiations aimed...