Free Republic

President Trump confirmed Wednesday he plans to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un later this year, the third sitdown between the two across the commander in chief’s two terms.*** “I get along with him, and you know what? The fact that I get along with him-that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that Kim has “57 very powerful nuclear weapons.”Should have never allowed it to happen,” the president added. “They should have never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it. But he’s got them.” Past...

President Donald Trump announced late Tuesday a temporary pause on 50% tariffs on Canada as both countries race to finalize a trade deal. The President’s announcement came hours before a series of tariffs set to cover about $20 billion worth of imports into the U.S. from Canada were set to take effect. “I have paused the 50% tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a deal!” Trump said on social media. Canadian Prime Minister Mark...

Since Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took office in October 2022, German aid organisations have, according to Rome's figures, brought around 22,500 migrants to Italian ports. The dispute between Italy and Germany over the sharing of responsibility for migrants is becoming increasingly heated. The Italian Interior Ministry has now released new figures on private rescue vessels and is demanding financial compensation from Germany. Since Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took office in October 2022, German aid organisations have, according to Rome's figures, brought around 22,500 migrants to Italian ports. In total, about 42,300 people have arrived in Italy on board...

The military has lost 25% of its fleet over the past five months The U.S. has lost 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones, worth at least $1.3 billion, since the start of its war on Iran, the Washington Post reported Friday. The drones can cost between $30 and $50 million each, depending on their sensor and weapons payload. The U.S. military has lost roughly 25% of its pre-war fleet in the past five months. A defense official told the Washington Post that some of the drones were not shot down by Iranian forces, but instead were lost after their communications link to...

An astonishing number of Canadians are leaving. The reasons why are clear. Like many Americans, I have a lot of affection for Canada. My stepmother was a Canadian, and she embodied a lot of what makes Americans fond of our northern neighbors. She was polite, intelligent, cultured, and conscientious. But these days something is not right up there. How do I know this? All you have to do is look at some simple statistics. Last year, roughly 150,000 Americans chose to leave the United States. Canada has more exact statistics on emigration. It says that 120,640 Canadians left Canada. The...

Israel carried out airstrikes on a defunct military air base in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, prompting the United States to condemn the attack as a threat to regional stability in the latest outburst of American frustration with Israel. Eight airstrikes hit the Abu al-Duhur military air base in Idlib, a city about 40 miles from the border with Turkey, according to the Syrian state media, and did not cause any casualties. The Trump administration has been a vocal proponent of Syria’s new government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and the U.S. special envoy to Syria and Iraq, Tom Barrack, said...

MAGA: “Make America Great Again.” That was U.S. President Donald Trump’s promise to the American people. Elect him, and the country would recover its mojo and return to a golden age of internal harmony, economic vitality, domestic sovereignty, and global influence. It was a seductive vision, especially for those Americans who had been buffeted by globalization and believed that immigrants and “globalists” were undermining the country from within. As Trump’s second term nears the midway point, there can be little doubt that he is one of the most consequential presidents in U.S. history. Unfortunately, almost all the consequences of his...

Russia is shipping parts for drones, missiles and explosives to Iran to replenish its weapons stockpiles decimated by US and Israeli airstrikes during the war, according to a new report. More than two dozen Russian ships, many of them under US and European sanctions, traveled across the Caspian Sea to deliver the arms to Iran’s port in Amirabad, NBC News reported, citing documents and a Western official. While the development demonstrates Moscow and Tehran’s deepening alliance, it also proves that the US-Israeli strikes against Iran’s production plants have been largely successful, Jim Lamson, a former CIA analyst, told the outlet....

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced sanctions against the president and a senior lawyer of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The move is the Trump administration's latest escalation in its campaign to "dismantle" the court which is empowered by more than 120 member countries to investigate war crimes. Rubio said the US was sanctioning ICC President Tomoko Akane of Japan and ICC Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal for engaging in the ICC's efforts to "prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction". The ICC said it stands behind its staff and believes that measures...

As the USS George Washington aircraft carrier heads to the Middle East, expected to relieve sailors and Marines on the USS Abraham Lincoln, fresh scrutiny has fallen on living conditions aboard U.S. Navy ships—especially as the move will leave the U.S. without a single carrier deployed in Asia to stare down China.U.S. lawmakers have demanded answers about conditions on the Lincoln, after family members and text messages purportedly sent by those on board detailed plumbing problems, dipped morale, unreliable water supplies and food shortages.The carrier has spent more than 200 days at sea without a port call and was scheduled...

President Donald Trump shared a striking social media post on Tuesday declaring the Strait of Hormuz to be American territory. The post featured a graphic image of the strait labeled "New United States Territory," a move that raises significant legal and diplomatic questions. The declaration comes amid ongoing tensions with Iran and American efforts to control the strategic shipping lane through which approximately 20 percent of the world's oil flows. While Trump has previously claimed the United States maintains "absolute control" over the strait, this latest statement represents a notable escalation in both language and policy positioning. That being said,...

Islamic State terrorists have claimed the killing of at least 130 Christians in three weeks of violence across Ituri Province, north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In the most recent and deadliest incident on Sunday, August 9, fighters from Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) killed 32 Christians and captured 24 in a coordinated assault on three neighboring villages in Mambasa Territory. In what Islamic State (IS – also known as ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) propaganda described as “a bloody attack,” the terrorists also burned down more than 60 homes and shops.

Arab state reportedly urged another potential Israel-normalization country to sign deal with Israel, then go to war ‘when time is right’ i24NEWS. August 10, 2026. Information cleared for publication by the Israeli military has revealed a reported exchange between several countries in the region over a possible agreement with Israel, according to reports by Israeli media Kan 11 and Channel 12. According to the reports, one Arab state allegedly advised another country to first sign an agreement with Israel and then, if circumstances became more favorable, launch a war against the Jewish state. identity of the country that received the...

President Trump confirmed the US isn’t expanding the window for peace talks with Tehran on Monday as the US-Iran memorandum of understanding’s 60-day deadline for negotiations expired. “Well, they want to make a deal, but they’re not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary,” President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. The president has demanded a ceasefire that will end Iran’s nuclear program but Tehran wants to pursue a “nuclear energy” program. The MOU failed to meet major objectives, like reopening the Strait of Hormuz, ending Tehran’s nuclear program and reaching...

“A sane society cannot debate its way out of psychosis. It must diagnose the patient with lethal precision and restore the ancient boundary between the mad and the free.” —LHGrey on "X" Back in the days of sailing ships, a certain subtropical zone of the ocean became known as the “horse latitudes.” There, an eerie windless calm prevailed, sometimes for weeks, stalling the progress of ships in mid-crossing. In desperation to save water on-board, captains ordered the horses being transported to America to be cast overboard, and the animals’ bloated carcasses drifted in an ominous cortège of warning to other...

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) confirmed via its public health agency on Sunday that at least 2,325 people have died of Ebola infections in the current outbreak in the east of the country, making it the deadliest such outbreak in the country’s history. Experts noted that the extremely high death toll is likely not a full count of the people killed by the disease, as the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) was slow to identify an outbreak in the affected area, and that only one other known Ebola outbreak – the 2014-2016 outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia...

Iran announced on Aug. 16 that it will offer a bounty of $30,000 to any individual who “kills or captures a U.S. soldier and hands them over to authorities,” according to Iranian state media. Iranian Army Commander-in-Chief Major General Amir Hatami revealed the bounty on Sunday at a ceremony that was allegedly held to honor journalists. Hatami suggested he’d double the reward if an Iranian woman killed or captured a U.S. soldier. The government suggested that it would even purchase the weapon used in the murder and display it in a museum. In a separate announcement on Sunday, Iran’s armed...

Fourteen years ago, on August 15, 2012, the first DACA applications were accepted. The Trump administration is dismantling DACA through a thousand cuts while moving to strip status from millions more -- a mass delegalization agenda that treats working people as disposable. About 500,000 people currently have DACA. 80,000 live in Texas where a federal court ruling could stop DACA recipients from working in the state at all. We're in the most dangerous moment in DACA's history. The DACA Renewal Fund was created to pay for the $555 renewal cost. No one loses status because they couldn't afford the fee....

Iran has decided to shift its policy from defensive to "fully offensive" due to the deadlock in efforts to agree on a permanent end to its war with the United States, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday. Progress towards peace talks and a resumption of oil tanker traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz has ground to a halt, with no sign that the warring parties are moving towards ending the conflict that the US and Israel launched on February 28. "Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as...

Turkey has renewed its challenge to Greek sovereignty in the Aegean Sea, using Greece's newly approved Special Spatial Framework for Tourism as the latest pretext. In an official statement, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to "geographical features whose sovereignty has not been granted to Greece through international treaties" -- language that directly revives Ankara's long-standing "gray zones" theory regarding certain islands and islets in the Aegean. Turkey declared that the Greek spatial plan "will have no legal consequences for Turkey" and accused Athens of attempting to instrumentalize environmental protection for political purposes. Ankara further warned that "unilateral actions...