Free Republic

New details of Moscow's intelligence work in Cuba were disclosed by Vasili Mitrokhin, a former KGB archivist who defected to Britain in 1992. ...Russian KGB officer Nikolai Leonov became "firm friends," with Mr. Castro's younger brother Raul in Prague in 1953 and then worked together with Fidel from 1956 and after he took power in 1959. The book, the second volume of what is known as the Mitrokhin archive, also reveals how Moscow sought to indirectly defeat the United States during the Cold War through large-scale "disinformation" and influence operations in the developing world. "The KGB really believed they could...

Socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani denounced India Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “war criminal” — and is now being ripped by other city leaders for spreading “hate” about the Hindu head of state. On the heels of making similarly provocative comments about Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mamdani blasted Modi during a recent mayoral forum. “This is someone we should view in the same manner we do Benjamin Netenyahu. This is a war criminal,” Mamdani said when asked a hypothetical question about whether he would meet Modi if the Indian leader visited the Big Apple. Mamdani, who...

Boeing stock (BA) plummeted over 5% in early trading Thursday after an Air India plane carrying 242 people crashed shortly after takeoff near the Ahmedabad airport. The plane involved was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, delivered to Air India in 2014, according to the aviation tracking site FlightRadar24. Authorities believe the crash likely killed everyone on board the flight head to Gatwick Airport in London. "We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them," a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected." This...

An Air India passenger plane crashed near Ahmedabad International Airport on Thursday. The aircraft — a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner — was en route from Ahmedabad to London with 242 passengers on board, the State Police Control Room confirmed to ANI. The plane caught fire after crashing and fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the blaze, said fire officer Jayesh Khadia. "A plane crashed in the Meghaninagar area near the airport. It is not yet clear what type of plane it was," said Ahmedabad police commissioner, GS Malik. The DGCA has dispatched a team from Delhi to Ahmedabad....

The United Arab Emirates is spending $20 billion on OpenAI’s Stargate UAE. The project is billed as a sovereign AI capability, yet it relies entirely on American chips, software, and infrastructure. This is the sovereign AI paradox: The harder nations push for AI independence, the deeper their dependencies become.The UAE is not alone. From Paris to New Delhi, governments are pouring billions into so-called “sovereign” frontier models. France backs Mistral. India promotes BharatGPT. Each promises strategic autonomy yet is dependent on a globalized stack.The term “AI factories,” adopted by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, rebrands data centers as strategic infrastructure akin...

Hyderabad: A six-month pregnant tribal woman passed away in Hyderabad after her husband allegedly forced her to unknowingly consume abortion pills. Pravalika, 23, and Sepurwar Prashanth, both natives of Adilabad, had been married for three years with a two-year-old son. She was in the sixth month of her second pregnancy. The couple were constructing a new house in Maharashtra. According to a police complaint registered by Pravalika’s brother, V Rajesh, the husband and his family held superstitions, believing it was misfortune for a woman to undertake part in the rituals of a new house while pregnant. On May 30, Prashanth...

Reporting Highlights Temp to Permanent: There’s periodic debate over the 120,000 foreigners annually awarded temporary H-1B visas, but almost no attention to the process by which many receive green cards. Filled, Then Verified: Foreign workers are eligible for permanent residency only when no U.S. citizens can do the job — but companies confirm that after foreigners have been employed as temps. Lost in Print: The law also requires that companies advertise these jobs in the classified ads of Sunday print newspapers, decreasing the chances that U.S. applicants see the listing. It’s a tough time for the rank-and-file tech worker or...

It's a grim paradox, doctors say. On the one hand, antibiotics are being overused until they no longer work, driving resistance and fuelling the rise of deadly superbugs. On the other hand, people are dying because they can't access these life-saving drugs. A new study by the non-profit Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) looked at access to antibiotics for nearly 1.5 million cases of carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative (CRGN) infections across eight major low- and middle-income countries, including India, Brazil and South Africa. CRGN bacteria are superbugs resistant to last-line antibiotics - yet only 6.9% of patients received appropriate treatment...

Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Monday the Senate could begin work this month on a bill imposing stiff sanctions on Russia – and secondary sanctions on countries that trade with Russia – over its war in Ukraine. Thune said President Donald Trump's administration still hopes for an agreement to end the three-year-old conflict, but the Senate is prepared to help put pressure on Moscow. "We also stand ready to provide President Trump with any tools he needs to get Russia to finally come to the table in a real way," Thune said in a speech opening the day's business...

A US tourist was arrested for entering North Sentinel Island, where the inhabitants shun all contact with the outside world. The tourist had carried a coconut and Diet Coke as a "gift" for the Sentinelese people. An American tourist was arrested for entering a restricted island with an isolated tribe carrying a can of Diet Coke and a coconut, Indian police said on Thursday. The 24-year-old man entered North Sentinel Island, part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands off India's southeastern coast. He wanted to meet the Sentinelese people, who are untouched by the modern world. Numbering around 150, the...

NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump’s attempt to be a broker in the conflict between India and Pakistan has the spotlight on a deal the hostile neighbour recently negotiated with World Liberty Financial (WLF), a cryptocurrency venture in which the president’s family has 60% stake. The deal was signed between WLF and the hastily-launched Pakistan Crypto Council, which early last month appointed as its adviser Changzpeng Zhao (CZ) — founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance — with the ambitious objective of making Islamabad South Asia’s crypto capital. Though the Crypto Council was barely a month old, WLF sent...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese authorities decided to form the strategic alliance for defense, trade and energy. Russia will deliver oil to China and China will collaborate with Russia in Geopolitical strategic defense of Euresia. Russia's Security Council and the Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo will form a forum and will work closely to make sure both countries can create and maintain the necessary military and political infrastructure as well as coordination. According to some international think tanks, sources close to Russia's Security Council say recommending countermeasures to check the U.S. geopolitical "offensive" in Eurasia...

70 years ago British India was divided into two countries, India and Pakistan. The repercussions of that event last till this day. Through the modern day victims of partition, we explore its legacy. India vs Pakistan: What Ignited The Ongoing Conflict | 48:32 Timeline - World History Documentaries | 5.62M subscribers | 295,638 views | May 7, 2025

The Times of India is reporting that a 13-year-old rape victim, granted permission to abort her 33 week old baby, gave birth Saturday night to a girl. “The hospital staff are monitoring both the young mother and the newborn, who will remain under observation for a week,” B Division police station’s police inspector Sudhir Rane told The Times of India. As of the time this story is being written, there is no further information how healthy the baby and her mother are. On May 6th, a special POCSO [Protection of Children from Sexual Offences] court rejected her application to abort...

Rusty-spotted cat World's smallest cat 🐈- BBC | 1:57 BBC | 14.9M subscribers | 65,850,336 views | January 5, 2018

Haaretz reports that archaeologists uncovered rare and somewhat perplexing figurines from two 1,500-year-old Christian burials at the site of Tel Malhata in the Negev Desert. The discovery was made during salvage excavations on the grounds of the Nevatim airbase, where previous archaeological work has revealed a rich history of human occupation from the Bronze Age through the Byzantine period. During the latest excavations, teams located some 155 tombs, but two burials contained objects different from anything else found at the site -- bone and wooden figurines with facial features resembling Africans. Two of them were carved from ebony, a rare...

ANC National Spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu, says that if international investors want to invest in South Africa, but want secure property rights and no racialist criteria, they can take their money elsewhere, like India. The host is stunned.

The world is on the brink of a climate apocalypse—one caused not by gradual greenhouse emissions but by a sudden exchange of nuclear weapons, a possibility made more salient by the current conflict between India and Pakistan. While the long-term effects of emissions are uncertain, we know that a nuclear war would result in an immediate nuclear winter. When we think about nuclear apocalypse, we tend to think of the immediate effects: thermonuclear explosions that incinerate cities and vaporize populations. But the worst consequences unfold long after the weapons have detonated. A major thermonuclear exchange would shroud the atmosphere in...

A joke circulating on social media suggests how President Trump could arrest terrorism against Indian Kashmir by jihadist groups based in Pakistan—a country that at its worst actively arms and shelters these terrorists, and at its most benign turns a blind eye. Let Mr. Trump open a large resort in Kashmir, the joke goes. Give him rent-free land on a long lease for golf courses and ski lodges—and then watch how quickly the terrorism falls off. Humor aside, Mr. Trump has helped to calm the region and scored his first major diplomatic achievement. On April 22, terrorists said by India...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he doesn’t want the tech giant to build its products in India, taking shots at the company’s moves to diversify production away from China and urging him to pivot Stateside. “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said. “I said to him, ‘my friend, I treated you very good. You’re coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India.’ I don’t want you building in India.” Trump was referencing Apple’s commitment of a $500 billion investment in the...