Free Republic

Iran’s semi-official IRNA news agency says that Tehran will not give up its right to enrich uranium under any deal it makes with the United States. Negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program are expected to begin after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, which US President Donald Trump has claimed could be signed as early as this weekend. IRNA reports that Iran will “negotiate only the nuclear program solely within the framework of the Islamic Republic’s fundamental principles.” “Issues such as Iran’s right to enrich uranium and the retention of enriched material by the Islamic Republic of Iran will be...

An Iranian state news outlet said Friday that an agreement with the U.S., which President Trump touted the previous day as a "great settlement of the war," includes the U.S. releasing $24 billion of frozen Iranian financial assets. Iran's semi-official Mehr News agency published what it said was a draft of the 14-point agreement Friday. It includes a stipulation that Iran's assets will be released during a 60-day extension of the current ceasefire, which would begin as soon as the deal comes into effect. Iran's Foreign Ministry cautioned earlier that the regime had yet to fully commit to the agreement....

A Toronto police officer has been shot to death during a raid tied to a March shooting outside the US consulate. The officer was shot during a gunfire exchange at a high-rise building in the early hours of Thursday, the Toronto Police Service said. He was later pronounced dead in hospital. Police had been investigating suspects who allegedly fired shots at the US consulate building in Toronto earlier this year, in what US and Canadian authorities described at the time as a "national security incident". (excerpt) US officials have linked the March shooting to a dual Iranian-Iraqi national accused of...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Two children and an adult were killed Thursday in the rural southern Netherlands when a car struck a group of cyclists who were on a school camping trip, local emergency services said. Four more children were seriously injured in the incident. They were taken to hospitals in the Netherlands and nearby Belgium for treatment. The dead and injured were part of a group of 14 schoolchildren and two chaperones, the Zeeland Security Region organization said in a statement. Police are investigating the cause of the incident on a provincial road that runs between farmers' fields near...

Iran hasn't reached a final decision on a peace deal with the U.S., an Iranian official said Thursday. "So far, Iran has not reached a final conclusion on the agreement," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement provided to Agence France-Presse. The statement comes after President Trump said earlier in the day that the U.S. had reached a "great settlement" regarding the Iran war. A letter of intent or memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran was likely to be signed early next week, two sources familiar with the diplomatic efforts told CBS News. Following Mr. Trump's...

Four U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft departed for Europe on Thursday, carrying equipment for a possible signing ceremony in Geneva. U.S. President Donald Trump claimed earlier that the United States had reached a "great settlement" with Iran to end the war, while Tehran said it had "not yet reached a final decision," as Iran's hardline faction warned that Trump may be bluffing. If signed, the "Islamabad Agreement" would immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz without transit fees, extend the ceasefire for 60 days, including in Lebanon, and open nuclear negotiations, representing the most significant diplomatic breakthrough in the war.What's...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government can continue collecting the 10% worldwide tariff it imposed in February while legal challenges to the levies continue to work their way through the courts, a federal court ruled Thursday. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington decision handed a procedural win to the Trump administration, concluding that its case was “likely to succeed on the merits.’’ At issue are temporary 10% worldwide tariffs President Donald Trump imposed after the Supreme Court in February struck down even broader double-digit tariffs the president had imposed last year on almost every country on Earth....

Officers carried out search warrant at residential building Thursday morning, prior to shootingA 19-year-old will be charged with first-degree murder in the death of a Toronto police constable shot in an exchange of gunfire in the city's northwest end Thursday morning, police say. The shooting happened as officers were conducting an investigation linked to several other incidents involving firearms around the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto police Chief Demkiw said, including one that took place at the U.S. consulate in March. Const. Marc Pinizzotto, 43, was "a hero in life, not death," Demkiw said at a news conference outside Sunnybrook Health...

Another ex-girlfriend of Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, is shedding light on his private behavior and disputing his claim that he didn’t know that the tattoo of a skull on his chest was a Nazi Totenkopf. Platner’s ex told The New York Post about the conversation she had with him about the tattoo. “As a person who is a leftist, I immediately looked at him and asked him, ‘Is that a Totenkopf?’ and he told me a whole, ‘he will hold this weight forever’ bravado sob story about how it was, but he decided to keep...

A U.S. official says the U.S. military shot down two Iranian drones that were trying to strike commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz tonight. “It appears Iran has attempted to strike commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz tonight. U.S. forces shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones. Traffic flow through the Strait continues,” the official said. The attack occurred after Trump spoke about being close to a deal with Iran this afternoon.

If you missed it, Hadi Alodid is the suspect accused of attacking a Scottish man on the streets of Belfast on Sunday night. The video of the attack quickly went viral, leading to two nights of riots in the city. Family friends told The Telegraph that Alodid was from a large and politically connected family from the town of Karima. He was born and partly raised in Saudi Arabia, but returned to Sudan for his education. Azheri Omer said he had been friends with Alodid since 2022 in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. He joined the police in Khartoum, but Mr...

A letter of intent or memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran is likely to be signed early next week, opening the way to further negotiations about an enduring U.S.-Iran agreement, two sources familiar with the diplomatic efforts said. The signing of the memorandum would kick off 60 days of talks to negotiate details of a U.S.-Iran agreement. That time period could be extended as needed, according to multiple sources. Shortly after Mr. Trump's post on the potential deal, the Fars News Agency, associated with the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, quoted a "knowledgeable source close to the Iranian negotiating...

A new YouGov survey suggests that Americans continue to view Israel as a strategic partner of the United States, with the public significantly more likely to see the interests of the two countries as aligned than opposed despite ongoing political debates over the Middle East.

The Sudanese suspect in the Belfast knife attack used a backdoor route into Britain popular with migrants seeking to sneak into the country. The Telegraph revealed last year how people smugglers were exploiting the soft border between Britain and Ireland to bring illegal migrants into the UK. Albanian gangs were charging £4,000 to traffic the migrants to Britain through the "backdoor" provided by the Common Travel Area (CTA) between Ireland and Britain. The CTA is a long-standing open borders zone comprising the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. Established in the 1920s, it allows British and...

President Trump announced that he canceled planned strikes against Iran on Thursday and claimed Iran's leadership "approved" a draft agreement that would extend the ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and launch 60 days of negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. (snip)The sources said the gaps were narrowed on three key issues: The mechanism for releasing Iran's frozen assets — the most important issue for the Iranians.Arrangements for reopening the Strait of Hormuz during the 60-day ceasefire period.How negotiations over Iran's nuclear program would be conducted during the 60-day ceasefire period.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has "certainly gotten some things wrong", US Vice-President JD Vance has said, as ties between the two partners in the war against Iran appear to have become strained in recent weeks. While Vance would not provide examples, he told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that Netanyahu "aggressively asserts the interests of his country" but that they were not always aligned with those of the US. His comments mark a further public admission that relations between the two allies have come under pressure of late. Recently, US President Donald Trump reportedly clashed with the Israeli...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Police blasted water cannons Wednesday at protesters in Northern Ireland who set small fires and hurled bricks, rocks and bottles at them during a second night of violence over a brutal stabbing on a Belfast street. Demonstrators wearing masks tore bricks from the walls outside homes and smashed sidewalks with sledgehammers to toss at riot police. In one place, the unruly crowd used sections of a dismantled a picket fence to take cover on the street. The clashes with police came several hours after a 30-year-old man from Sudan appeared in a Belfast court charged with...

US President Donald Trump canceled the planned attacks on Iran Thursday due to progress in negotiations with the Iranian leadership.

Said Abdullahi Ereg, an international fugitive wanted in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, has returned from Kenya to America to face justice. U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen announced Ereg’s arrest this afternoon at a press conference in downtown Minneapolis. Your correspondent was there. The press release can be found here. You will recall that just last week the FBI placed Ereg on their newly-created most-wanted fraudster list. Apparently, that was enough to prompt Ereg to arrange for his return to Minnesota, by way of London, England. Rosen reports that Ereg surrendered to federal agents at the airport today. Ereg remains...

President Trump warned Thursday that the US will soon take over Kharg Island, which processes about 90% of Iran’s crude oil for export, following a second day of airstrikes against the Islamic Republic. “The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT,” Trump announced on Truth Social. “At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets,...