Free Republic

Libya's highest Islamic authority, the Dar al-Ifta, has issued a fatwa in the Islamic nation, barring Muslims from buying, selling, or wearing clothing featuring the Nike logo. Sadiq al-Ghariani, the nation's highest Islamic jurist, approved the fatwa. It was issued after the Dar al-Ifta accused Nike of supporting Israel. It's the second brand-related fatwa in the country. Last year, the Dar al-Ifta issued a fatwa against luxury brand Van Cleef & Arpels, which sells jewelry, perfume, and other high-end items. Van Cleef & Arpels' four-leaf clover design is associated with Christianity and contradicted Islamic teachings. Libya has been politically divided...

Security guarantees for Ukraine and a new European security strategy were the main topics of meetings in Brussels on November 5 with representatives of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and NATO. Head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service Rustem Umerov said this in a Telegram post, Ukrinform reports. "Together with representatives of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and NATO, we discussed what security guarantees for Ukraine from the United States and other partners should look like, as well as a new European security strategy. We are continuing work on this track. We will share details...

Paraguay’s central bank has seized a major digital bank with ties to President Santiago Peña ... ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay -- Paraguay’s central bank seized a major digital lender with close ties to President Santiago Peña early Tuesday, throwing the savings of millions of customers and hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds into limbo. The Central Bank of Paraguay said that its board voted unanimously Monday to put Ueno Bank into resolution after its solvency ratio — a measure of a bank’s capital against its risk-weighted assets — fell below half the legal minimum. Unlike bankruptcy proceedings in court, resolution...

In the fallout from losses in Tuesday's midterm elections for the Republican Party in state and federal races, Democrats are eyeing members of President Donald Trump's administration as targets for impeachment. One of the first names to float to the top has been that of Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth.On Thursday afternoon, Hegseth put out a video in an X post, with his department's - and the president's clearly defined America First rules of engagement over the next two years with "the Democrats and the Deep State radicals" who hate us."President Trump's War Department has never been afraid to...

Dozens of Honduran migrants departed San Pedro Sula on Election Day, marking the country's third caravan since September, with participants hoping the midterm elections would create an opportunity to enter the United States, according to Latin Times. The Trump administration has maintained its hard-line immigration policies, with U.S. Embassy officials warning migrants against making the journey and threatening visa revocations for caravan organizers. "Here in Honduras, we have nothing left," 47-year-old Jimena Morazán told Latin Times. Morazán joined the caravan with five family members. The state of Honduras is a factor for migrants seeking to leave the country. The homicide...

About three-quarters of voters said the Iran war was a crucial factor in which candidate they supported in the 2026 midterm elections, according to an NBC exit poll. Among the 74% of voters who said the Iran war was a crucial factor, 62% voted Democrat and 35% voted Republican. ... In a CBS exit poll, most voters said the U.S. made the wrong decision to take that military action in Iran, including about a quarter of Republicans.

I am not naive about what happened Tuesday; in fact, I had predicted an outcome like this for some time. But I also realize President Donald Trump has demonstrated real leadership at one of the most consequential moments in American history. His decision to confront Iran's nuclear ambitions was courageous, necessary, and, I believe, one that history will judge favorably.

Politicians and presidents sometimes make Faustian bargains. They make trade-offs. The stereotypical Faustian bargain is one in which someone sells his or her soul to the devil in exchange for money or fame. But let’s say you’re the president of the United States, and the two options before you are to keep your country safe or to better position you and your party to hold onto power. It all centers on a country that has been chanting “Death to America" since 1979, and that is very close to obtaining nuclear weapons and delivery systems that could wipe out its neighbors,...

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated that the country will defend its rights under international law and refuse to submit to coercion or externally imposed demands. Pezeshkian made the remarks on Tuesday during separate meetings with the newly appointed ambassadors of Portugal, Switzerland, Türkiye and Nigeria, who presented their credentials in Tehran. Receiving Portuguese Ambassador Waltier Matias, Pezeshkian criticized misleading portrayals of Iran and its people in Western media, saying, “Many of the things published about Iran and our nation in Western media do not correspond to reality.” The president also denounced state terrorism and the targeting of scientists,...

Russia quickly adopted, mass-produced and frequently adapted the Iranian-designed Shahed attack drone during its war against Ukraine. But it took the United States about three years to deploy its own version of the drone, Ryan said. “The technology was equally available to all. What differed was institutional speed,” Ryan wrote in the assessment, titled “Fast Following: Military Emulation and Twenty-First-Century Transformation.” The report says the ability to copy an enemy’s innovations could prove as important as inventing new military technologies. During the war, Ukraine and Russia have repeatedly borrowed each other’s drone tactics. For example, Ukraine quickly adopted fiber-optic drones...

Pete Hegseth is increasingly looking like he may take the fall for Republicans’ midterm losses, despite Donald Trump’s vocal support for his defense secretary, even calling him a champion of war. The war in Iran, which voters and Trump have named as a key reason for Republicans’ midterm losses, “has been primarily a Department of War-led effort because you chose to take military action to resolve a foreign policy matter”, a former senior Pentagon official told CNN. “If the president is serious about anyone taking responsibility for it, it’s Pete Hegseth,” one Republican close to the White House added in...

The new Texas governor-elect, Gina Hinojosa, is and has been an open-borders activist with a long record of bitterly opposing any and all border security measures, and she will likely take every action she can to that effect when she assumes office. That could include scaling back state-led border enforcement operations and limiting discretionary cooperation with Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), although existing Texas law would constrain how far she could go. Fox News' Bill Melugin paints an uncomfortable picture on this matter. He Tweets: Understand the implications of what happened in Texas last night. Gina Hinojosa...

On Monday, Pat Buchanan turned 88. I leave it to others who knew and worked with him to sing his praises; I have little new to add. I can say simply that his record speaks for itself. It is, however, my privilege to help run the magazine he founded. When in the Trump years you’ve run into conservatives in the under-50 DC set, they’ve always been enthusiastic about Pat and the idea of his magazine, even when they can’t tell you a single thing it’s published in the past year. People knew how much the Trump thing owed to our...

A German doctor who rose to prominence for his criticism of Covid measures has been arrested in Berlin for "insulting" Berlin’s Mayor over his links to a convicted paedophile drag queen, reports John Rosenthal. A German doctor who rose to prominence during the Covid period for his criticism of the Covid-response measures has been arrested in Berlin in connection with “insults” of Berlin’s outgoing Mayor Kai Wegner. Paul Brandenburg, who has several social media channels and a podcast, has previously been the target of numerous other German speech-crime investigations and charges. Although a native Berliner, he presently lives in Switzerland....

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said there will be Senate Republican support for ending the war with Iran as soon as possible and threatened that Democrats will use the “power of the purse” to starve the Defense Department of funding if necessary to bring a swift end to the conflict. “We are going to end the war. We have some Republicans already who have joined us in ending the war, and the Founding Fathers had the power of the purse as one of the ways of deterring a president who does war without the consent of the American people,”...

Vice President JD Vance delivered a blunt assessment of Republicans' sweeping midterm losses Wednesday morning, pointing at the Iran war as the driving force behind the party's election-night defeats. "But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone," said Vance on X."The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. But everyone knows why...

U.S. President Donald Trump called Greenland the greatest gift the United States had ever received in a call to Fox News on Tuesday. “Remember, [Europe] just gave the United States the greatest gift we were ever given. Do you know what it was? Greenland. We just got Greenland, you know that, right?” he said during a broadcast about Tuesday’s midterm elections, which was reshared on X by the U.S. State Department. Someone else on the call quickly clarified that Trump was referring to “a military deal.” Until September, Trump had repeatedly pushed for the U.S. to take control of the...

Tokyo stocks ended lower in volatile trading Wednesday, with the Nikkei briefly plunging toward 60,000, as media projections showed Democrats had regained control of both houses of the U.S. Congress. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended down 893.23 points, or 1.42 percent, from Monday at 62,188.63. The broader Topix index finished 34.90 points, or 0.89 percent, lower at 3,895.38. Japanese markets were closed on Tuesday for a public holiday. On the top-tier Prime Market, the main decliners were nonferrous metal, oil and coal product and mining issues. The U.S. dollar weakened, briefly falling to the lower 157 yen range in...

Last week, authorities received a warning from the Military Intelligence Service, as well as allied services, that diversionary actions could take place on the border with Russia - including border violations by armed groups. The police secure the royal region for possible events that could lead to acts of diversion - says RMF FM Marek Boroń. Therefore, reinforcements from police commands from several voivodships [jurisdictions: comparable to a county] came to the borderland. This is due to the information we also have from external services. We are to take care of the safety of the citizens who live there, but...

Independent international monitoring of detention facilities in Russia has come to an end with the country’s formal withdrawal from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, the Council of Europe said on Sunday. In a statement, the Council of Europe said inspectors from the convention had carried out 30 visits to more than 450 detention facilities in Russia during the 23 years it was a member. Russia, however, permitted the publication of only four visit reports over that period. “Russia may authorize the publication of [the remaining] reports at any time,” the statement read, noting that the unpublished reports...