Free Republic

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has paid an emotional tribute to soldiers killed while fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine, saying his ‘heart aches’ in a rare admission of military losses. Kim made the comments on Thursday at a ceremony in Pyongyang, where he met with commanders of a unit that had fought for Russia in the western Kursk region, according to North Korean state media KCNA. He praised them as “a heroic army,” with state media photos showing Kim pinning commendation badges on soldiers’ uniforms. Photos released by KCNA also showed Kim pinning badges on the...

Congressman Matt Gaetz proposed a radical peacetime solution – allow Russia to join NATO. “Before you suggest I’m crazy for thinking about NATO and Russia as partners, the idea has been floated by foreign policy thinkers on the right and left for some time,” Gaetz added. “In 1997, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on NATO expansion. President Clinton’s secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, reflected on groundbreaking cooperation between NATO and Russia.” The concept never came to fruition as NATO decided that encircling Russia was of paramount concern, and partnering with its greatest enemy was of no interest...

Many in New Delhi welcomed President Donald Trump’s return to power, expecting him to take the Indo-US relationship to new heights. They must wonder where it all went wrong, given that Trump launched an unprecedented broadside against India this week – threatening tariffs of 25 per cent and warning that a surcharge would be added unless India stops buying Russian oil and weapons. He even expressed dissatisfaction with the nation’s participation in the “anti-US” BRICS grouping. Normally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi might just overlook a few social media posts. It may be humiliating to wind up with higher tariff rates...

This is the problem. Whitaker’s arrogance thinks that the US is so powerful that it can crush Russia without ever firing a shot and calling Putin “sick and twisted” when we started this war, and there were TWO peace deals which the WEST broke – not Russia. I have NEVER in my entire life witnessed such INCOMPETENT diplomacy. The Neocons have been instructing Trump to be strong and yield nothing to Putin, and he will fold. Peace is easy. Just HONOR the Minsk Agreement. But this is a war to destroy Russia, and Trump is a fool who is being...

Six months into Donald Trump's return to the White House Marjorie Taylor Greene has about had it with the Republican Party. The conservative firebrand who surged onto the political scene in 2021 and has been an ever-present figure in the House GOP and MAGA orbit ever since told the Daily Mail in a 45-minute call this week that it may be time for her to walk away. 'I don't know if the Republican Party is leaving me, or if I'm kind of not relating to Republican Party as much anymore,' she revealed. 'I don't know which one it is.' Her...

Six months into Donald Trump's return to the White House Marjorie Taylor Greene has about had it with the Republican Party. The conservative firebrand who surged onto the political scene in 2021 and has been an ever-present figure in the House GOP and MAGA orbit ever since told the Daily Mail in a 45-minute call this week that it may be time for her to walk away. 'I don't know if the Republican Party is leaving me, or if I'm kind of not relating to Republican Party as much anymore,' she revealed. 'I don't know which one it is.' Her...

Say hello to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Say hello to a blue wave in the 2026 midterms. Say hello in 2028 to President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If President Trump and congressional Republicans keep this up, it will only be the start of the progressive takeover. Left-wing populists are already winning over voters by raising hell about the rising price of clothes and groceries due to tariffs. The growing appetite for populist left voices damning the high cost of living made headlines earlier this year in the successful “Fighting Oligarchy,” tour featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ocasio-Cortez.

Russia said on Thursday it had captured the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 16 months of fighting, opening the way for potential further advances. Russia's Defence Ministry said in a brief statement its forces had "liberated" the town.

The Kremlin is building its way toward a reality where it can soon launch 2,000 Shahed one-way attack drones in one night, according to two recent Western assessments. Maj. Gen. Christian Freuding, the German defense ministry's commander of planning and command staff, said in a Bundeswehr interview aired on Saturday that Russia was "striving to further increase production capacity" of its Shaheds. "They want to expand the drone attacks we just talked about," Freuding said. "The ambition is to be able to deploy 2,000 drones simultaneously." "We need to consider intelligent countermeasures," he added. In a separate assessment on Sunday,...

European Union envoys are on the verge of agreeing an 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that would include a lower price cap on Russian oil, four EU sources said after a Sunday meeting. -snip- The sources said they had also agreed to a dynamic price mechanism for the price cap. On Friday, the European Commission proposed a floating price cap on Russian oil of 15% below the average market price of crude in the previous three months. One of the sources said the initial price would be around $47 a barrel based on...

Donald Trump told a private gathering of donors last year that he once sought to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine by threatening to “bomb the sh*t out of Moscow” in retaliation, according to audio provided to CNN. “With Putin I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the sh*t out of Moscow. I’m telling you I have no choice,’” Trump said during one 2024 fundraiser, according to the audio. “And then [Putin] goes, like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ But he believed me 10%.” The remarks, which came as Trump made his case for a...

Only 11 days after President Trump was inaugurated for a second term, his administration began a purge of the F.B.I. that now threatens some of the bureau’s most important missions. His appointees ousted eight of its most experienced managers, including the division heads overseeing national security, cybersecurity and criminal investigations. Several had worked on prosecutions of Jan. 6 rioters or had assisted in the various investigations of Mr. Trump, and Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, said they could not be trusted to carry out the president’s agenda.That was just the beginning. Over the past five months, many...

The Defense Intelligence Agency has produced a 5-page preliminary report on the strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities which concludes the strikes were partially successful but failed to destroy the underground sites. That report seems to have leaked instantly to ever major news agency, starting with CNN.The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, one of the sources said...Two of the people familiar with the assessment said Iran’s stockpile of...

Trump administration officials on Tuesday slammed a leaked preliminary intelligence assessment of the damage done to Iran’s nuclear facilities by weekend US airstrikes that the president has touted as a massive success. The classified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) bomb damage assessment — deemed a “low confidence” estimation of the effectiveness of Saturday’s strikes on the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz sites — reportedly determined that Iran could bring its nuclear program back online as quickly as within one to two months, according to Fox News. On the high end, estimates indicate that Iran could restart uranium enrichment within a year, according...

A ‘Top Secret’ Intelligence assessment about the US’s strikes on Iranian nuclear sites was leaked to CNN, and CNN disclosed it on live TV on Tuesday. .... Snip.... On Tuesday, a ‘top secret’ intel assessment of the Fordow plant was leaked to CNN, AP, and the New York Times. CNN reported that, according to a leak, an early assessment from the Pentagon’s intelligence arm revealed Iran’s nuclear sites are ‘largely intact’ and the US strikes only set them back a few months. A leak to the AP also claimed that Iran’s nuclear program was not ‘completely and fully obliterated.’ White...

A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, according to officials familiar with the findings. The early findings conclude that the strikes over the weekend set back Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months, the officials said.

The US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by four people briefed on it. The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, one of the sources said. The analysis of the damage to the sites and...

Experts say it will take years for Tehran to replenish its missile supplies, but it can still terrorize Israel and others with cluster warheads and short-range rockets =============================================================== With the Iran-Israel conflict possibly brought to a halt by a US-brokered ceasefire on Tuesday, questions remain over the true condition of Iran’s missile arsenal after nearly two weeks of punishing exchanges. Iran’s missile salvos proved the destructive power of its long-range missiles, turning buildings into rubble and killing dozens, even as Israel has claimed to take out much of its stockpile and the means to launch. The ceasefire, confirmed by both...

Russian TV presenters have urged Vladimir Putin to consider dropping nuclear bombs on a NATO country to "solve" the world's problems "at once". In a chilling diatribe hawkish presenter Vladimir Solovyov raged that Russia should move nuclear weapons into Iran, under Kremlin control, and even attack NATO member Poland with an atomic weapon. Speaking on Russian state TV, Solovyov said Russian should use tactical weapons against Ukraine and "just in case, also drop one into Poland", adding: "No one will say a word. They will impose sanctions, so what?". Under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) it...

As the specter of another World War looms large, people worldwide are pondering potential safe havens should Russia escalate from nuclear warfare threats to actual missile launches. This comes in the wake of Iran and trading missile strikes as the tensions in the Middle East threaten to boil over into all-out war. Russia and China backing Iran diplomatically or militarily—and the U.S. aligning with Israel—raise the specter of a proxy world war. The rapid escalation—from Iran-Israel missile exchanges to U.S. strikes and Iranian counterstrikes—fuels real anxiety about a broader war. Experts warn that any step into nuclear territory or deeper...