Free Republic

All NATO members have agreed that Ukraine will eventually join the military alliance, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Friday. Stoltenberg's statement to reporters came ahead of the 11th meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Group at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. However, Stoltenberg fell short of offering a timeline on when Ukraine could become a member of NATO and said the main focus now is to ensure the country prevails in the ongoing conflict with Russia. In September 2022, Ukraine announced a bid for fast-track membership of NATO after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had annexed four...

H.4246 has been introduced in the South Carolina General Assembly to nullify the World Health Organization’s (WHO) proposed pandemic treaty and IHR amendments. Please help enact H.4246 by contacting your state legislators. Urge them to support strong measures that uphold and enforce the Constitution. snip TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ADDING ARTICLE 27 TO CHAPTER 1, TITLE 1 SO AS TO PROHIBIT THE STATE OR ITS POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS FROM IMPLEMENTING THE PROVISIONS OF FEDERAL TREATIES BEFORE THE TREATY IS RATIFIED BY THE UNITED STATES SENATE. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of...

After months of speculation, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Friday that he will not seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.During a recent interview on “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Pompeo revealed he and his wife had “come to the conclusion that we’re not going to join the race in 2024.”“[W]hile we care deeply about America and the issues that I have been talking about this last year-and-a-half and, frankly, for decades, matter an awful lot, this isn’t our moment,” Pompeo said. The former secretary of state also released a pre-recorded video announcing the decision, adding that “the...

President Biden's nominee to lead the World Bank says the twin global challenges of climate change and inequality need to be addressed simultaneously and cannot be separated. Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard, tells Morning Edition's Michel Martin that it will take the combined action of all stakeholders, from countries to the multilateral development banking system to the private sector to make a difference, particularly when it comes to climate change. "We don't have the time to play in silos," he says. Banga, who is 63, says the World Bank, which oversees billions of dollars in funding for developing...

Hoffman, 55, has told New York Magazine‘s Kara Swisher: “The short answer is I will spend as much as I possibly can and it takes and is effective [to beat Trump].” This could involve aiding other GOP primary candidates, reports Puck News, to the point where Hoffman and his cohorts are investigating state primary rules, as well as the idea of supporting anti-Trump, right-leaning media. The issue was discussed at length in a late March podcast by the new, D.C.-based news site. While Hoffman has demurred on specifically endorsing a Republican candidate, claiming “I’m almost certainly in the Biden camp,”...

1,000 migrants arrived in Portland, Maine since the beginning of 2023, ..Some residents have expressed discontent with the expo center being used as a shelter for migrants while the city of Portland continues to experience an increasing homelessness problem with its own citizens. Running the basketball arenas as a shelter for two months in 2019 cost Portland around $400,000 – and, the Portland Press reports, the city raised nearly $1 million in private donations to support the 400 asylum seekers who arrived over the summer that year. Portland activist Richard Ward told Fox & Friends on Wednesday that the city's...

The Russia-Ukraine war sparked an international drive to increase the production of arms. Despite not directly arming Ukraine, South Korea has taken the lead in arms production & its export. Ally South Korea reached an agreement to lend the US 500,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery shells. This could give Washington greater flexibility to supply Ukraine with ammunition. ...

The Dalai Lama has apologised after footage showed him asking a boy if he wanted to suck the Tibetan spiritual leader's tongue. His office said he wanted to apologise to the child and his family "for the hurt his words may have caused". The video also shows the Dalai Lama kissing the child on his lips. "His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident," his office said.

The Dalai Lama has apologized for kissing a young boy on the lips and asking him to "suck my tongue" after a video of the incident sparked outrage on social media. The 87-year-old Buddhist priest "regrets the incident" and wishes to apologize to "the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused," according to a statement published by his office on Monday. "His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras," the statement adds. A video of...

Prof. John Quelch discusses the BRICS nations announcing their own currency, in a bid to break away from the US dollar.

Part of the great devolution of American power is not just related to depletion of military stores and the lack of enlistments for the service, but also our economic power. The latest monetary threat is coming from both East and West and may be the coup de grâce for the U.S. dollar, which has long been the dominant global currency for international financial transactions.This initiative is a serious concern for American interests. The countries in the BRICS alliance have a combined population of 3.1 billion. That's about 40% of the world's population and 20% of the world gross domestic product...

The BRICS alliance is exploring the creation of an innovative currency, with plans to share proposals on its establishment at the forthcoming summit in South Africa, according to Alexander Babakov, deputy chairman of Russia's parliament, the State Duma. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum event in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Babakov said that the plan is to initially transition to using domestic currencies in transactions and then introduce and circulate a digital or alternative form of a groundbreaking currency in the near future.Babakov anticipates that the BRICS leaders summit will reveal a preparedness to implement this particular...

When Trump took office, his enemies were in place and they got him before he could get them. Two cases of corruption have recently come to the fore, both involving foreign countries. Significantly for U.S. citizens, both of these shed light on questionable activities of Hunter Biden regarding vital United States foreign interests. Whether they also provide inference to be drawn about President Biden’s document retention then becomes question for the jury of public opinion. One of these cases involves the recent raid by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the home of Ukraine's most corrupt oligarchic Igor Kolomoisky for allegedly...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A World Bank report released Wednesday puts the cost of Ukraine’s recovery and rebuilding from Russia’s invasion at $411 billion over the next decade, with the cost of cleaning up the war rubble alone at $5 billion. The report details some of the toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine: at least 9,655 civilians confirmed dead, including 461 children; nearly 2 million homes damaged; more than one out of five public health institutions damaged; and 650 ambulances damaged or looted. In all, the World Bank calculated $135 billion in direct damage to buildings and infrastructure so far, not...

The Farmer Citizen Movement, founded in 2019, did not exist in the last round of four-year elections. It came from nowhere to produce a momentum which has seen it dramatically outperform the ruling party of the technocratic Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The party was founded in opposition to “Net Zero” measures aimed at the dramatic reduction in Dutch farming. If implemented, these World Economic Forum (WEF) inspired decrees would mean the compulsory purchase and closure of over 3,000 farms in the world’s second largest food exporter by 2030. Yet it is no longer just a movement of farmers.

Police in the Georgian capital Tbilisi have used tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators. The group demonstrates in front of parliament against a controversial bill. According to them, the 'foreign agents' law is intended to silence government critics. Under the proposal, all organizations must register as a 'foreign agent' with the Ministry of Justice if they receive more than 20 percent foreign funding. They can also be checked an additional restrictions imposed. Organizations risk a fine of up to five years if they do not comply with the rules. First hurdle taken The first part of the law...

Ocean ecosystems keep our planet in balance by producing nearly half of the earth's oxygen and absorbing much of its carbon dioxide - but they are under threat from pollution, exploitation and global warming. ... WHAT IS IN THE HIGH SEAS TREATY AND WHY IS IT NEEDED? The treaty, in a nutshell, will provide a legal framework for establishing vast marine protected areas (MPAs). This means that all activities that go on in the high seas will be subject to environmental impact assessments, with member states held accountable for their actions. The treaty itself focuses on four main areas, according...

Indian leader calls on bloc to find common ground on global issues as he inaugurates the meeting set to be dominated by Ukraine war. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has criticised global institutions for failing to address the world’s biggest challenges, calling on countries to find common ground on divisive issues. Speaking at the opening of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, Modi said that countries should acknowledge that multilateralism is currently “in crisis”. “The experience of the last few years – financial crisis, climate change, pandemic, terrorism and wars – clearly shows...

GENEVA (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday stressed the importance of legal challenges against “climate-wrecking corporations” like fossil-fuel producers, ratcheting up his call for the fight against climate change—- this time before the U.N.’s top human rights body. Guterres has previously said that fossil-fuel producers need to be held to account, but pressing the issue before the U.N.’s top human rights body — made up of 47 member countries, plus scores of observer states — raises the stakes. Nearly half the world’s population — 3.5 billion people — live in “climate hot spots” that are “fast becoming human...

ROME, Feb 25 - Italy wants to team up with France and Germany to "influence" and slow the pace of European Union laws on cutting car and truck emissions, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said on Saturday. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government has already come out strongly against the bloc's decision to outlaw the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035, with one minister calling the forced switch to electric "suicide" and a "gift" to Chinese industry. Speaking to the TGcom news channel, Urso called on the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, to take a "pragmatic, concrete,...