Free Republic

One year ago, Charlie Kirk was shot dead; the British government immediately got to work. Following Kirk’s murder, the Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), a UK government counter-extremism and anti-terrorism unit, began monitoring thousands of social media channels, gauging the reaction of what they describe as “Extreme Right-Wing” (ERW) activists. Published here for the first time, a memo written by RICU reveals that officials assessed that “Extreme Right-Wing” activists, including Tommy Robinson, would use Kirk’s assassination to “push pro-free speech narratives.” Counter-extremism agents assessed that right-wing extremists would use Kirk’s death to “encourage more radical action” and “abandon political...

The United States will sell Black Hawk military helicopters to Argentina for the first time, despite renewed tensions with the UK over the Falkland Islands. The state department said the proposed $140m (£103m) deal – which would give Buenos Aires four UH-60L helicopters – would improve Argentina's ability "to meet current and future threats". The move follows Donald Trump's inflammatory comments about the Falklands, with the US president suggesting he would not help Britain fight an invasion of the islands by Argentina. Last week, The Telegraph reported that the US could also oppose Britain's claim to sovereignty over the islands...

..... John Howard was the only world leader besides president George W. Bush who could see and feel the trauma, the chaos, the panic, the fear Americans felt that day. ..... The next day, vice-president Dick Cheney loaned us Air Force Two to get the prime minister back home to Australia. (The PM come over on a Qantas commercial flight and the president’s order to ground all commercial flights meant Qantas wouldn’t fly that day). ..... The secure communications on Air Force Two were quickly put to use. The prime minister called foreign minister Alexander Downer to tell him he...

Iran is growing more aggressive in its attacks on US warships, including an aircraft carrier — firing three strikes in the past week in a clear act of escalation not seen since the start of the war. While Iran has mainly focused its strikes on US and ally bases in the Middle East for most of the war, Tehran has now appeared to set its sights on the Navy vessels maintaining the blockade that is choking its economy. The new attacks have led to much closer calls than before as US officials grow concern that Iran’s targeting ability has vastly...

Polish far-right leader Grzegorz Braun has published a video of himself using a hammer to attack a monument in Poland dedicated to soldiers from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a World War Two partisan formation that fought against the Soviet Union but was also responsible for massacring Poles. Braun declared that the monument, which was also recently vandalised by other unknown perpetrators, should be removed as it “insults the memory of victims of the Ukrainian genocide against Poles” and “glorifies Nazism”. The incident comes amid recent tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv over World War Two history, and in particular...

Israel has blown up a key tunnel network built by the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, causing a 4.1 magnitude tremor from a blast that filled the night sky with flames and billowing plumes of smoke. The explosion on Thursday, which sent shockwaves rippling across the region for miles, obliterated the major underground complex built by the Iran-backed terrorist organisation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday evening it had demolished the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon. It is understood 1,100 tons of explosives were used. Footage released by Israel's defence minister Israel Katz shows the dark night...

Satellite imagery and fire-detection data are raising questions over whether Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement has struck Saudi Arabia’s strategically important East-West oil pipeline. There is no independent confirmation that the pipeline itself was hit. A large smoke plume was reportedly visible over the desert southeast of Medina, along the general route of the pipeline toward Mahd adh-Dhahab. NASA’s FIRMS system also showed clustered thermal anomalies in the area. FIRMS provides near-real-time satellite detections of active fires, but its data do not by themselves identify what is burning or establish who caused it. The reported fire comes as the Houthi-Saudi conflict...

Mr. Vance, who opposed the war from the outset and was charged by President Trump with helping to end the conflict, wanted the commanders’ individual judgments, in their own words, before they were consolidated into a Pentagon view. ...commanders were blunt. They were most worried about their depleted stocks of Patriot interceptors. The war had also exhausted the theater’s supplies of the Army Tactical Missile Systems, along with stores of the Precision Strike Missiles. Stocks of critical munitions were the lowest they had ever seen. Mr. Vance came away from some of his conversations with deep concerns about the overall...

The acting U.S. Navy secretary Hung Cao said that the Iranian military severely damaged a major Navy installation in Bahrain, acknowledging the extent of damage sustained by the base during the conflict. “They blew the hell out of Bahrain,” Cao said in an interview with The Epoch Times, which was published Thursday, referring to the Naval Support Activity Bahrain (NASB), which serves as the headquarters for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. Fifth Fleet. The base has been heavily targeted by Iran after the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against the Islamic Republic in late February. The Navy...

Iran has resumed production of ballistic missiles, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, contradicting the Trump administration’s claims that Tehran’s military capabilities have been destroyed in the months-long conflict with the U.S. Iran has assembled new missiles using existing components in more limited quantities than before the war in several underground sites, including the Khojir missile facility in southeastern Iran, U.S. and Middle Eastern officials told the Journal. The regime is also working on new underground assembly sites to avoid renewed American attacks. The U.S. and Israel have damaged several of Iran’s industrial facilities, and the U.S. naval blockade has...

W. provided us with a helpful reminder of how the warning signs for the biggest terrorist attack on American soil were missed. Because not only did Americans "forget," New York City has an Islamist running the city. As if it were Bush's dutiful mission to push a narrative in stubborn defiance of the facts, he appeared at his presidential center with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, where he pushed the fact-free talking point that "Islam is the religion of peace." "I also made it clear that Islam was a religion of peace, not a religion of war, and that...

The prevailing narrative from entertainment, academia, and other creative spheres is that Israel is the villain of all villains. And one of the words we see most often is “genocide.” A massive contingent of creative and political figures has lent their names to an open letter calling out the narrative. The letter is the brainchild of the Creative Community for Peace, and it begins, “We the undersigned are outraged and sickened by the latest blood libel to be inflicted on the Jewish people: the lie that Israel committed ‘genocide’ in Gaza. We reject this accusation with contempt.” "Central to the...

Reading The Economist often reminds me of listening to David J. Bier of the CATO Institute blather about the wonders of open borders. I keep meaning to write about Bier and will get to it soon, but the essential quality in both cases is a stubborn determination to build cases on theoretical principles, unleavened by any grasp of the real-world realities that shape how those principles play out once implemented. Bier caught my attention several times, but the most emblematic moment that stuck with me was that many of the objections we have to open borders leading to masses of...

The Iran-backed Houthi militia captured a strategic Red Sea port city on Thursday, according to two Yemeni officials, in a sweeping ground offensive that could give the group greater control over an important shipping route and further destabilize energy markets. The Houthis pushed out forces allied with the Yemeni government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, to seize the city of Mokha as well as its port, according to a local official in the city and a senior provincial official. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Mokha has been...

WASHINGTON — Any immigrant legally in the United States on a work visa would have to depart the country immediately if they lose or quit their job under a new rule being proposed by the Department of Homeland Security. The proposal would eliminate the 60-day grace period foreign workers receive when they become unemployed — allowing them to stay in the US to find more work. Instead, the loss of employment would mean an immediate loss in legal status.

The attention of Ford’s future product plans was largely focused on the Bronco Basecamp this week, though it’ll be beaten as the Blue Oval brand’s first import from China by the Transit City, with the electric van due in showrooms later this year. Arriving from November and priced from $50,000 drive-away, the Transit City is Ford’s first vehicle to be sold in Australia that’s manufactured by joint venture partner JMC in China. Smaller than the Toyota HiAce-rivalling Transit Custom, the Transit City will be electric-only, powered by a 110kW front-mounted motor, rather than its slightly larger sibling which offers turbo-diesel,...

Twenty five years ago, Osama bin Laden led the planning of Al Qaeda’s attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, from a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan, where he lived as their guest. Now, the Taliban rule over Afghanistan once again, trying to present a more modern face to the world. But despite the veneer, the Taliban have not changed their ideology, and armed groups, including dozens of Qaeda members, remain in Afghanistan. Many of the conditions that made the Sept. 11 attacks possible remain. Extremist armed groups still have a home in Afghanistan, according to the United States, China, Russia and the...

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen wants to halt military and financial support for Ukraine should she come to power. She proposes convening a major peace conference and seeking a diplomatic resolution to the war. Her opponent, former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, has described the refusal to provide aid to Kyiv as a move that benefits Russia…

Multiple American military aircraft were damaged in Iranian strikes overnight Tuesday into Wednesday local time on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, people with direct knowledge of the matter told CBS News. One A-10 Thunderbolt, an attack aircraft known as the Warthog, was struck and lost a wing, the sources said. Roughly eight F-15s sustained light damage and were reportedly put back into service, according to the people familiar with the damage, who spoke to CBS News under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. No U.S. deaths have been reported in the strikes on...

When a group of European officials arrived in Kyiv to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day last month, they got some worrying news. The European Union, a key backer, had earlier this year finalized a loan of more than $100 billion for the country. But Ukraine now faced an unexpectedly large defense budget shortfall, President Volodymyr Zelensky told allies. To get through the year, he would need $27 billion more. Europeans understand Ukraine is in a fight for its existence but did not expect such a large budget shortfall, according to four European diplomats who, like others quoted in this piece, spoke...