Free Republic

Over the past eighteen months, nearly every condition analysts have long said would erode the dollar's dominance arrived at once. War broke out in the Persian Gulf. The Strait of Hormuz has closed, reopened, and closed again, and remains shut as this is written. Iran began charging transit tolls denominated in yuan. Indian refiners started settling Russian crude in yuan and dirhams, the first time a top-five oil importer structurally routed around the dollar for energy. China's cross-border payment system posted record volumes, clearing 1.22 trillion yuan in a single day in March. Central banks bought gold at a pace...

Shanghai airports canceled hundreds of flights on Monday as Tropical Storm Dolphin dumped heavy rain in eastern China, causing flooding in places after making landfall as a typhoon the previous day. Shanghai’s Hongqiao and Pudong airports canceled more than 900 flights, or about 40% of those expected, after about 1,300 were canceled the day before, according to Shanghai Airport Group. Shanghai also suspended some of its metro lines on Monday, and China Railway Chengdu Group suspended 115 trains, state news agency Xinhua reported. Authorities warned of risks of severe flooding and landslides in some areas. State broadcaster CCTV reported that...

In a major setback to efforts to ease tensions in West Asia and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Iran on Monday has ruled out any future negotiations with the Donald Trump’s administration, saying it will wait until the US President’s term ends on January 20, 2029, according to Iranian outlets and a post by an adviser to Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf.

A Presidential Delegation, led by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, represented the United States at the August 7 inauguration of President Abelardo de la Espriella. The delegation demonstrates U.S. commitment to reinvigorating the U.S.-Colombia relationship and deepening of our shared security and economic partnership.

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (WTNH) — Sen. Richard Blumenthal presented medals to a 98-year-old Korean War veteran from South Windsor Monday, recognizing his honorable military service and courage in battle.Pablo Mendelez served in the U.S. Army from 1950-1952. During his service in Korea, he sustained serious injuries while trying to rescue an injured soldier under enemy fire.

The accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is the gravest accusation that can be made against any nation – and also, as Howard Jacobson has pointed out, the most sadistic that can be made against Israel in particular, because it deliberately shifts the Jews from historical victims of genocide to being perpetrators. That is why those who use it are either ignorant or malign – or, as in the case of Charlie Downes, campaign director and co-founder of far-Right party Restore Britain, both. Downes has a long history of using anti-semitic tropes (not least in his latest suggestion...

US President Donald Trump has been weighing the possibility of declaring victory against Iran without achieving a nuclear deal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing US officials. According to the officials, Trump privately floated the idea to his senior aides. If the US can keep Iran's nuclear program in check and traffic resumes in the Strait of Hormuz, then Trump would be more likely to extend the ceasefire "indefinitely," the officials told WSJ. In recent weeks, the president told senior aides privately that Tehran is "likely unable to revive its nuclear work," after Operation Midnight Hammer caused heavy...

Over the last few weeks, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has privately made clear to other top Trump advisers that the US needs to find an off-ramp from the war with Iran — because the military options on the table to escalate the conflict could backfire and airpower alone is unlikely to achieve President Donald Trump’s stated objectives. ...Trump ultimately decided to back off after talking with Middle East allies, who told him they were afraid of Iranian retaliation, specifically retaliatory attacks on their energy infrastructure. ...A shortage of high-end American air defense systems could impact their...

The intelligence-sharing relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine has bounced back to previous highs, according to long-time Ukraine watchers — a welcome boost during a critical window of opportunity for the Ukrainian war effort. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the intelligence committee’s ranking member and a longtime proponent of more U.S. assistance to Ukraine, told POLITICO he sees evidence of an improved intel-sharing agreement — and believes it’s helped Kyiv gain an advantage in Moscow’s four-year-long war.

The head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until the United States met certain conditions.A top Iranian national security official delivered a sweeping set of demands on Saturday that he said the United States must meet before the Strait of Hormuz can reopen to maritime traffic, throwing the fate of the critical trade waterway into question.Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, issued a statement carried by state media laying out multiple requirements for reopening the strait. He called for the United States to lift its naval...

Terrifying footage shows a Russian drone hunting a street vendor in Ukraine – as Moscow intensifies its drone and missile attacks against the country. The nerve-wracking video, which has sparked allegations of war crimes from Ukrainian officials, shows a vegetable vendor being chased around his van stand by the low-flying craft before it explodes just as he dives behind his vehicle. The vendor, a man in his 50s, survived the blast but suffered shock and shrapnel injuries, officials said. An explosion occurring between two vehicles, with the Ukrainian National Police emblem visible in the corner.A Russian drone taunted and hunted...

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine is reportedly quietly working toward an exit from Donald Trump’s Iran war, even as the president appears to believe more air strikes could force a deal. As the war enters its sixth month, CNN reported Friday that Caine has privately discussed the limits of further military action with other top Trump advisers, warning that continued bombing may not be enough to secure a ceasefire. “Caine is looking for an off-ramp,” one source familiar with the matter told the outlet. The 57-year-old general has discussed the matter with CIA Director John...

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t met any Iranian cabinet members since the US-Israeli strikes that killed his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, the opposition-aligned IranWire outlet reports, citing two unnamed sources close to President Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration. The sources claim that “rumors that he is in extremely critical condition and could pass away at any moment are circulating widely within the highest levels of the regime.” One of the sources is quoted as saying: “We would not be surprised if we heard news of his martyrdom soon.”

Iranian officials continued to make disparaging comments about the United States and tout their plans to take permanent control of the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, even as the White House remains optimistic about an imminent “deal” that would end the conflict in the Middle East and secure safe passage for shipping. Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Friday mocked President Donald Trump for constantly backing down from his threats to launch a “massive attack” and claiming Iran wants to make a deal. “‘Massive attack coming… wait, never mind, they want to negotiate.’ That’s theater diplomacy on loop,” he...

They board flights from Central America bound for the United States, not to migrate but to source used cars. Operating a cross-border circuit, these drivers transport salvaged vehicles from American scrapyards to their home roads — giving junked cars a second life and fueling the local economy. Julio César Pisquiy Nimatuj was 12 when he first drove on a highway. He discovered that he enjoyed being behind the wheel. Decades later, Mr. Pisquiy, 44, is one of these migrants who drives for a living. Every driver has their own business model. Mr. Pisquiy buys the cars in advance at auctions...

As cities and towns across America reckon with power-hungry data centers, the Chinese Communist Party is sowing division. As small towns across the United States reckon with power-hungry data centers springing up, the Chinese Communist Party is muddying the waters and sowing division. By tapping into the tensions around water usage, power demands, and environmental costs, the regime is trying to widen the wedge using an old playbook: influence peddling and propaganda. There’s no discounting the groundswell of anger in American towns about data centers in their neighborhoods. Local resistance has blocked or delayed at least 75 data center...

Russia has attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles and drones, killing at least 21 people, as Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said interceptors "could have saved lives". Kyiv and the surrounding region experienced the deadliest strikes it had seen this year overnight, with 17 people reported dead. Attacks in Kharkiv and Donetsk also killed one and three people respectively. Ukraine, who has consistently urged allies for more US-made Patriot missile interceptors to defend against Russian ballistics, has not reported intercepting any of the missiles in the overnight attack. Zelensky added delays in receiving anti-ballistic systems from partners leads to "horrific casualties and...

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have signed a joint defence agreement, saying an attack on one of them would be seen as an attack on all three. The pact was announced at a meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the Saudi city of Mecca. The three countries have been looking to strengthen security ties as the war between the US and Iran has drawn in Saudi Arabia and disrupted maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping channel, and the Red Sea. Saudi...

The year is 2019 and, after almost a full term in office, Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government of right-wing and religious parties heads to a general election. Opposing him is a former IDF chief of staff heading a new centrist party which quickly soars in the polls, making him the main challenger for prime minister. That challenger was Benny Gantz. Gantz formed alliances, fought elections and got caught up in the paralysis of Israel’s 2019-20 governing crisis in which nobody was able to form a coalition. Facing the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gantz agreed to a deal with Netanyahu where...

The maximalists wanted regime change, the minimalists wanted nothing, and the doubters see only waffling. Carafano’s answer: the victor gets to define victory — and everywhere you look, the region is moving Trump’s way. Iran War Turns into Trump Middle East Triumph: We are about to see the biggest reshaping of the Middle East since Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. Like the pharaoh, who missed every warning sign up to the parting of the Red Sea, the critics and questioners of Trump’s tug-of-war with what’s left of the Iran regime seem obtuse to the prophetic truth that the...