Free Republic

Former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke called on Democrats to do more than "comprehensive immigration reform" the next time they take back the White House and Congressional majorities, at a rally on Saturday against the GOP effort to redistrict Texas congressional districts. "We absolutely failed to live up to the expectations that we set, so next time we win power, we're going to drive that car like we stole it," he said at the rally in Fort Worth called "The People vs. The Power Grab." BETO O'ROURKE: Check this out. "You know, Democrats -- present company excluded -- have talked an...

Matt Whitaker, the United States ambassador to NATO, said Sunday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could end up joining the high-stakes meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Whitaker said Mr. Trump will have the final say on who is invited to the meeting on Friday in Alaska and that there is ample time between now and then to make that decision. “Yeah, I certainly think it is possible,” Mr. Whitaker said on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked whether Mr. Zelenskyy could make an appearance. “Certainly, there can’t be a deal that everybody that is...

Not for the first time, European capitals are gripped with apprehension that Russian President Vladimir Putin will surgically divide the transatlantic alliance as well as get everything he wants in Ukraine.Ahead of the suddenly announced summit in Alaska on Friday between Putin and US President Donald Trump, one European diplomat, who declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak on the record, told CNN: “We are at risk of being a footnote in history.”In part, European fears are down to just how little is known about what the Kremlin has proposed in order to halt the fighting...

---SNIP--- It’s decline began some 20 years ago, when the company made multiple acquisitions, many of which were in telecommunications and wireless technology. In concept, that made great sense. But acquiring businesses is a skill of its own, and David Yoffie, a Harvard Business School professor who was on Intel’s board of directors at the time, told Fortune “100% of those acquisitions failed. We spent $12 billion, and the return was zero or negative.” Intel also tried unsuccessfully to grasp the mammoth cell phone opportunity. The company understood the opportunity and was supplying chips for the highly popular BlackBerry phone....

President Donald Trump suggested ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska this week that Ukraine could cede land to Russia as part of a peace deal — an idea that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky swiftly rejected.“Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Zelensky said in a video address Saturday. The leaders of Britain and the European Union threw their support behind Ukraine’s president, saying a ceasefire must come before any negotiations.Trump had said that “some swapping of territories” could be “to the betterment” of both sides.Ukraine is a vast Eastern European country, covering about...

Russian president secures first official invitation to US in almost two decades ahead of sanctions deadline Alaska, the venue set for Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s meeting on Friday, could hardly be more symbolic of the Kremlin’s view of the world. Unlike Putin’s military seizure of about a fifth of Ukraine, Russia’s 19th-century sale of Alaska to the US under Emperor Alexander II was a peaceful transaction. Still, it serves as a reminder that national borders are not set in stone, and land can be a currency for statecraft. Neither the battlefield balance nor budget strains are forcing the Russian...

According to new report, opposition to abortion is more ‘extreme’ than rape.A European abortion lobby is warning against “religious extremism” on the rise across the continent, singling out Catholicism and ignoring the threat posed to Europe by Islam. The 158-page report “The Next Wave: How Religious Extremism Is Reclaiming Power,” published by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights (EPF), faults “religious extremism” for the phenomenon of “accelerating financial expansion of movements working to dismantle decades of hard-won sexual and reproductive rights across Europe.”The EPF report derides the “anti-rights and religious extremist actors in Europe” working to oppose...

Vice President JD Vance gave a preview of his expectations for President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.“Look, it’s actually very simple,” Vance said during a Fox News interview with “Sunday Morning Futures” anchor Maria Bartiromo. “If you take where the current line of contact between Russia and Ukraine is, we’re going to try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and the Russians can live with, where they can live in relative peace, where the killing stops.He continued, “It’s not going to make anybody super happy. Both the...

Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that it would be up to President Donald Trump to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky together to broker a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine. White House officials have suggested they are open to a trilateral meeting, but Vance did not suggest a time or date when he spoke to Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” He did say, however, that the White House is “trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that, around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to...

Since President Trump retook office, many Ukrainians have worried a peace accord would be struck without them.For nearly three years of the war in Ukraine, Washington’s rallying cry in backing a fight against a Russian invasion was “no negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine.” But when President Trump meets President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Alaska on Friday, the Ukrainians will not be there, barring any last-minute invitation. And Kyiv’s swift rejection of Mr. Trump’s declaration that he is already negotiating with Russia over what he vaguely called “land swaps,” with no mention of security guarantees or arms for Ukraine,...

SummaryUkraine fears Trump-Putin summit will seek to dictate terms European leaders rally in support of Kyiv Zelenskiy says there is no path to peace without Ukraine Russia's Medvedev blasts European interference Aug 10 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won diplomatic backing from Europe and the NATO alliance on Sunday ahead of a Russia-U.S. summit this week where Kyiv fears Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump may try to dictate terms for ending the 3-1/2-year war.Trump, who for weeks had been threatening new sanctions against Russia for failing to halt the war, announced instead on Friday that he would meet Putin...

The German economy is sinking far deeper into recession than previously thought. Recent revisions to the national accounts by the Federal Statistical Office paint a dramatic picture. Quietly and without fanfare, the Federal Statistical Office released new data this week on Germany’s economic output. And, as expected, the figures were revised downward. Instead of shrinking by 0.2% in 2023 as initially reported, Germany’s GDP actually contracted by 0.9%. The outlook for 2024 has also worsened: a projected contraction of 0.5% instead of the previously assumed stagnation. Three Years of Ongoing RecessionAnyone who still clung to the illusion of stability must...

While the world pushes false claims of Gaza starvation, the truth is far more disturbing—and far more ignored. In this critical episode of MidEast & Beyond, Amir Tsarfati and Pastor Barry Stagner unpack breaking developments across Israel’s war fronts: the end of Operation Gideon’s Chariots, the possible complete siege of Gaza City, Hezbollah’s weakening grip on Lebanon, the looming Israeli operation in Yemen, and the manufactured famine narrative exploited by global media. From fake humanitarian photo ops to spiritual deception on a worldwide scale, this is a wake-up call to the Church and the world.

The graffiti appeared hours after The New York Times issued an editor’s note amending its July 24 article, “Gazans are dying of starvation.” Five days after publication, the Times acknowledged that its story referenced a Gazan boy, Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, suffering from severe malnutrition, but later learned from his doctor and medical records that the child also had pre-existing health conditions. The editor’s note underscored that the article had been updated to reflect these new details.

Iran has sent its surviving nuclear scientists into deep hiding after Israel killed more than 30 researchers, The Telegraph can reveal.Most are no longer living in their homes or teaching at universities, and have been moved to secure locations in Tehran or northern coastal cities, where they live in villas with their families, a senior Iranian official said.The Telegraph has been shown the names of more than 15 of these surviving scientists, on a list of about 100 held by Israel, whom the Israelis say must now decide whether to continue their work and risk further strikes or find a...

Russia! Russia! Russia! Obama's now-obliterated intel assessment on foreign influence in the 2016 election was supposed to also research China's history of hacking U.S. presidential campaigns. Despite that task, the assessment never mentioned Beijing at all, and instead was focussed on creating a false Trump/Russia collusion narrative. The controversial January 2017 intelligence community assessment (ICA) on meddling in the 2016 election was supposed to include details on Chinese hacking efforts targeting U.S. presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012 — but it focused solely on Russia instead, and never mentioned Beijing once.The omission of any mention of China in the...

Location matters, former real estate mogul US President Donald Trump said. Moments later he announced Alaska, a place sold by Russia to the United States 158 years ago for $7.2 million, would be where Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to sell his land deal of the century, getting Kyiv to hand over chunks of land he’s not yet been able to occupy.The conditions around Friday’s summit so wildly favor Moscow, it is obvious why Putin leapt at the chance, after months of fake negotiation, and it is hard to see how a deal emerges from the bilateral that does not...

New York Times reporters documented how fentanyl was concealed by Mexico’s most powerful criminal syndicate, which is adapting in the face of a crackdown by two governments.The fentanyl packer moved with precision, his headlamp casting a sharp glow on the swift work of his gloved hands.Hoodless carcasses of old vehicles sat gutted under a pitch-black sky. Car jacks, coils and greasy rags littered the ground.The man sprayed six aluminum-wrapped packets with a liquid that smelled like chlorine, a compound that he said would help disguise fentanyl from search dogs. Underneath the foil, the deadly drug was wrapped in carbon paper...

SummaryZelenskiy rules out Trump's Russia-Ukraine land swap plan Trump to meet Putin on August 15 in Alaska Vance will meet Ukrainians and Europeans on Saturday UK says Vance meeting is vital for a 'just' peace KYIV/LONDON Aug 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine will not cede its land, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday, rejecting U.S. suggestions that a deal with Russia could involve swapping territories as Washington and Moscow prepared for talks between their leaders on ending the war.U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he would meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15, saying the...

If a fire alarm had been readily available in Helsinki’s presidential palace, the first summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin might have ended with sirens and sprinklers.Fiona Hill, then a White House expert on Russian affairs, was so unnerved by Mr Trump’s remarks at the joint press conference that she “looked around to see if there was a fire alarm” to bring the “terrible spectacle” to a sudden close.American officials might want to check out the fire alarms of the Alaskan venue where Mr Trump and Putin will meet on Aug 15, particularly as the stakes for this summit...