Free Republic

Moroccan King Mohammed VI said his decision to give US President Donald Trump’s name to a US$1 billion (S$1.28 billion) highway that crosses into the disputed Western Sahara expresses his “deep appreciation” of the American leader. Hailing Trump’s “historic recognition” of Moroccan rule of the Western Sahara in 2020, the king said it “will forever be etched in the memory of Moroccans” and has “given unprecedented momentum to our bilateral relations”. A resource-rich territory about the size of the UK, the Western Sahara has been disputed by Morocco and an Algerian-backed independence movement since former colonial ruler Spain withdrew in...

The mullahs in Tehran know that a truly democratic opposition movement could threaten their grip on power. That is why they deliberately tolerate weak, ineffective exiled figures like Pahlavi — allowing him just enough visibility to distract from real threats to their rule.

Syria’s air defenses responded to an Israeli attack in the Damascus countryside, according to state media. The report comes after a blast near Israel’s nuclear plant, which IDF pinned on a missile launched from Syria. The Israeli strike reportedly targeted a site in al-Dumayr, located some 24 miles (40km) from the Syrian capital, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported early on Thursday morning. The country’s air defenses were said to have intercepted “most of the enemy missiles,” according to a military spokesman. “The Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression with bursts of missiles from the direction of the...