Free Republic

How unfair it is on Chipping Norton, that handsome, decent town, to be burdened by a link with David Cameron, the second worst Prime Minister of the modern age... Mr. Sunak cannot want Mr. Cameron's expertise on foreign policy. His major achievement in that field was to destroy Libya, replacing the despot Gaddafi with wild, burning chaos. This one action triggered the giant explosion in human trafficking across the Mediterranean which has utterly transformed Europe and European politics for the worse. He also supported the failed attempt to overthrow the nasty Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad, supposedly in the name of...

It is déjà vu for major oil producers, who are again considering steeper production cuts. It took only a month after the Hamas attacks on Israel unleashed a punishing war for oil prices to fall below their pre-Oct. 7 level. The steep drop in oil prices last week, with Brent crude briefly dropping to $77 per barrel, led to speculation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers (OPEC+) will decide to cut production at its next meeting. OPEC’s last-minute decision to delay the meeting, now scheduled for Nov. 30, will only add to the speculation. U.S....

Before his removal in a military coup, Gabon’s hopelessly corrupt President Ali Bongo was courted by Obama and feted from Washington to Davos. The US war on Libya which destabilized the region may not have succeeded without him. When a military junta arrested President Ali Bongo Ondimba on August 30, Gabon became the ninth African nation to depose its government through a military coup. As citizens of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali did before them, crowds of Gabonese poured into the streets to celebrate the removal of a Western-backed leader whose family flaunted its lavish lifestyle while more than a...

Remember when Liz Cheney was going to have a "megaphone" after losing her primary in Wyoming? The idea was that her 40-point defeat would only elevate her, positioning her to speak loudly and forcefully against the supposed excesses of her own party. Cheney was going to protect "democracy" and be well-positioned for a 2024 presidential run. Well, as usual, those bleating the loudest in the mainstream press were wrong because none of that happened. Instead, she has been heavily marginalized, likely because she's no longer useful to the Democratic Party. I regret to inform you that Cheney is back, at...

Recent floods in Libya have uncovered long-buried archaeological structures in an ancient Greek settlement outside the devastated city of Derna. The magnitude of the catastrophe, however, is impeding preservation efforts.Local authorities discovered the structure while surveying the damage to Cyrene, a Greek city founded in 631 BCE. Cyrene thrived in the fourth century BCE as a center for agricultural and commercial activity, and holds several ancient landmarks such as a temples dedicated to Zeus and Apollo, respectively.But Cyrene is now in dire need of aid after an aging dam burst earlier this month near Derna, unleashing a torrent of water...

No words. The most dramatic display Ive yet seen of the force of what had to be a huge wall of water.

The remains have been identified as those of a gunner killed when the badly damaged aircraft crashed into the sea in 1943.Archaeological divers have recovered human remains from the wreck of a U.S. bomber that crashed near the Mediterranean island of Malta in May 1943.Scientific analysis by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has confirmed the remains are those of U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) Sgt. Irving R. Newman, who was 22 years old when the aircraft — a B-24 Liberator based in Libya — suffered engine trouble and was hit by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing raid over the...

President Trump seeking recusal of the federal judge dealing with the January 6th related federal charges brought against him by the Biden Administration Justice Department... In a sign that a US-Iran prisoner exchange is moving forward Iranian assets frozen in South Korea (6 billion US dollars) freed to move to Qatar... The US Food and Drug Administration approving new updated COVID-19 shots (vaccines).... Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Joe Biden next week. But this is not... There are fears that thousands have died in eastern Libya following a powerful storm... In the UK the "Wilko' retail chain closing...

More than 2,000 people in Libya are feared dead in severe flooding, according to a Libyan leader, as Storm Daniel swept through the eastern part of the country. The head of Libya’s eastern parliament-backed government, Osama Hamad, announced the death toll on Monday, according to a report from state news organization Libyan News Agency. “Osama Hamad said in press statements that residential neighborhoods disappeared after the torrents swept them into the sea along with thousands of their residents, and the situation is catastrophic and unprecedented in Libya,” LANA reported.

North Korea says that US Army Private Travis King wants refuge after he crossed the border recently... The Russian military in Syria saying that two US warplanes came dangerously close to Russian aircraft in Syria... In Libya heavy fighting between militias in the capital city of Tripoli... Russian President Vladimir Putin urging a peaceful resolution to the dispute between African nations over the recent military coup in Mali... (Updated) In Argentina the fall of the peso continues today following yesterday's devaluation... The markets today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average down 361.24 points or 1.02 percent. The NASDAQ down 157.28 points...

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has reportedly kicked the Wagner PMC out of Belarus, after refusing to finance the Russian mercenaries. (snip) But reports have now emerged suggesting Lukashenko has refused to finance their stay in the country and the mercenaries are being 'bussed' back to Russia for a “vacation.” According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, operations to remove all Wagner Group men began earlier in the month, with a second phase to remove the rest going into effect this weekend. Wagner’s services don’t come cheap. Putin recently admitted that the Kremlin has spent around $1bn on the private military company...

<p>Pardon us for interrupting the Beltway brawl over Iraq intelligence, but has anyone else noticed the recent landmark progress against nuclear proliferation? The latest breakthrough came this week in Pakistan, where a scientist confessed on television to his nuclear weapons deals during the 1990s.</p>

Below is my column in the Hill on the first hearings this week to be held by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. It could be one of the most consequential investigations for free speech in decades if it pulls back the curtain on government censorship programs. After the historic release of the Twitter Files by Elon Musk, questions remain on any similar coordination with other social media companies with federal agencies like the FBI to target views considered “disinformation” or “misinformation.” Here is the column: This coming week a new House select subcommittee will hold...

Both the Obama and Biden administrations have had two obsessions that have proven to be erroneous but continue to persist. One is the belief that the Palestinians are the key to Arab Israeli peace. Former President Barack Obama had spent eight years pursuing efforts to push Israel to make unilateral concessions to the Palestinians, including freezing settlement expansion for almost a full year. At the same time, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas climbed on a high tree and refused to come down and negotiate. President Joe Biden has been less preoccupied with the Palestinians since other priorities emerged that made...

Pelosi, Schiff, and Biden have politicized a career intelligence community position by demanding the removal of a national security professional.Hours after President Joe Biden delivered his inaugural address promising to bring unity and healing to the country, his administration began a politically charged attack on a highly respected, newly appointed career intelligence official over fears he would be insufficiently loyal to Democratic partisans. The attempted purge has thus far followed the playbook publicly laid out by top Democrats and their left-wing media enablers. In a stunning violation of precedent, Biden’s National Security Agency (NSA) placed General Counsel Michael J. Ellis...

Gal Luft, the “missing” witness in the House Oversight Committee’s Biden family corruption investigation, has told The Post he is alive and living as a fugitive in an undisclosed location. The former Israeli Defense Force colonel vanished from Cyprus last month while on bail awaiting extradition to the US on seven charges. He denies the allegations, which include five charges relating to the Arms Export Control Act of conspiring to sell Chinese products to the United Arab Emirates, Kenya and Libya, as well as a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and of making a false statement. Luft claims...

The current hysterical actions and statements of Prigozhin are a consequence of his attempt to save himself from the anger of the Kremlin’s top leadership. ... The Wagner Group chief was also unable to capture Bakhmut after months of fighting, despite receiving Putin’s approval to recruit criminals strictly for the purpose. So, Prigozhin’s recent statements about withdrawing his group from Bakhmut and his extensive interview on the topic of how “we can f**k up Russia thanks to the Kremlin elite” are nothing more than an attempt at self-defense. Prigozhin is a product of the Putin system, but now his position...

A blank-check legislation signed into law in 2001 has allowed the Pentagon to launch more than 40 military interventions in at least 22 countries without congressional approval A new study from the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute estimates that over 4.5 million people have died from wars launched by the west in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks. The study estimates that between 906,000 to 937,000 people have been killed as a direct result of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia. These countries have experienced the most violent wars in...

In 2011, egged on by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a handful of other advisors, Obama ordered a months-long series of air strikes that facilitated a NATO-backed regime change campaign that toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Rather than ushering in liberal democracy and prosperity, the ouster of Gaddafi left the country fractured, with two rival governments and various militias vying for power. Obama’s regime change marked the start of an ongoing era of chaos, with some of the greatest resulting evils inflicted on black Africans. Those evils began during the war, as racism and Gaddafi’s use of sub-Saharan black...

The U.S. military has successfully completed the evacuation of the American embassy in war-torn Sudan, President Joe Biden said late Saturday evening. Biden confirmed the evacuation of U.S. government personnel from Khartoum and that the administration would continue to assist Americans in Sudan. "I am proud of the extraordinary commitment of our Embassy staff, who performed their duties with courage and professionalism and embodied America's friendship and connection with the people of Sudan. I am grateful for the unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought them to safety. And I thank Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia, which were...