Free Republic

Washington -- Ex-Japanese prime minister Taro Aso has met former president Donald Trump and both the leaders discussed the enduring importance of the US-Japan alliance to their physical and economic security in the strategic Indo-Pacific region. Aso, vice president of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, met Trump on Tuesday at the Trump Tower in Manhattan. Both the leaders discussed the enduring importance of the US-Japan alliance to both countries’ physical and economic security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, according to a statement issued by the Trump Campaign on the meeting with the 83-year-old visiting Japanese leader. “They also discussed challenges...

Newly unredacted documents in the Mar-a-Lago raid case indicate that Jack Smith was after Obama and North Korea-related documents. After the raid the DOJ was pleased with their findings and wrote, “I think we are in good shape.” President Trump said two years after he met Obama before his 2017 Inauguration that Obama was on the brink of starting a war with North Korea. Trump claimed that Obama was “close to starting a big war” with North Korea. Obama must not have liked this. The corrupt and criminal Obama/Biden gang was after documents related to North Korea years later when...

WASHINGTON—The classified documents that investigators say were leaked by a junior member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard indicate the extent to which U.S. spy agencies rely on clandestinely intercepted communications to keep tabs on their adversaries and allies alike. In vivid examples, the documents track foreign governments’ military movements, diplomatic efforts and clandestine weapons sales, as well as debates in friendly capitals and more. The powerful eavesdropping program that enables some of that intelligence gathering is due to lapse at the end of the year. To persuade Congress to renew the program, Biden administration officials had been debating whether...

North Korea issued a nuclear ‘warning signal’ to the United States and South Korea. Pyongyang held a nuclear strike drill as a “warning signal” to the US, according to North Korean state media. US Indo-Pacific Command said the launch “does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies,” stressing instead the “destabilizing impact of the DPRK’s illicit weapons program.” “South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed that any reports of such accuracy or capabilities of its weapons system were likely exaggerated, and that South Korea’s military could detect and intercept any weapons.” – Fox...

A North Korean delegation led by the cabinet minister for international trade is visiting Iran, the North’s official media says in a rare public report of an exchange between the two countries believed to have secret military ties. The minister for external economic relations, Yun Jong Ho, left Pyongyang on Tuesday by air leading a ministry delegation to visit Iran, the North’s KCNA news agency says. It gives no other detail. North Korea and Iran have long been suspected of cooperating on ballistic missile programs, possibly exchanging technical expertise and components that went into their manufacture.

Hungry North Koreans bristle as elites feast on expensive dog meat Food is in short supply and prices continue to rise, but the privileged aren’t feeling the squeeze. By Chang Gyu Ahn for RFA Korean 2022.07.21 Share Hungry North Koreans bristle as elites feast on expensive dog meat A file photo shows a North Korean soldier holding a badminton racket on the banks of the Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong. REUTERS While citizens in North Korea are nearly starving in the face of food price hikes and shortages, the...

Beijing, now Moscow.… Who else is hiding in broadband gateways?The US government today said it disrupted a botnet that Russia's GRU military intelligence unit used for phishing expeditions, spying, credential harvesting, and data theft against American and foreign governments and other strategic targets. This latest court-authorized takedown happened in January, and involved neutralizing "well over a thousand" home and small business routers that had been infected with the Moobot malware, which is a Mirai variant, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, speaking at the Munich Cyber Security Conference on Thursday. Moobot can be used to remote-control compromised devices and launch...

Iran warned United Nations Security Council envoys to expect retaliation against Israel’s apparent bombardment of a diplomatic facility in Syria that killed several Iranian military commanders. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has exercised considerable restraint, but it is imperative to acknowledge that there are limits to such forbearance,” Iranian envoy Zahra Ershadi, the regime’s deputy representative to the United Nations, said Tuesday afternoon. “The occupying regime must bear full responsibility for its consequences. Iran reserves its legitimate and inherent right under international law and the United Nations Charter to take a decisive response to such reprehensible acts.” -snip- “Do not...

In Haiti today violence on the streets at last one person killed... A ship claiming to be from Yemen trying to hail a merchant vessel... President Trump posting a 175 million dollar bond... Israel says it is urgently probing the deaths of five aid workers... "We urgently call on the Israeli leadership to abandon the practice of provocative military operations in Syria and other neighboring countries" That statement from Russia's foreign ministry tonight... North Korea firing a ballistic missile eastwards into the Sea of Japan (East Sea)... UK politics 20 Labor Party local council members in Lancashire resigning from Labor...

Former Texas Representative Ron Paul recently told Tucker Carlson that the public must prepare for an unprecedented “Black Swan” event this year. While discussing current political events on the Tucker Carlson Show, Paul reminded the former Fox News host how he predicted the conflict in Ukraine in 2014. However, Paul said something much bigger is coming, a significant event that would catch the world off guard and plunge society in chaos. “I think we’re reaching this point where some sudden thing is going to happen,” Paul began.

Like a petulant child who doesn’t get its way, North Korea likes to throw tantrums. A few days ago the rogue state reminded the world how troublesome it is by launching several short-range missiles in the first weapons tests since President Joe Biden took office, sending a sharp message to the new US administration. But behind the aggression, dictator Kim Jong-un is in serious trouble as his regime teeters on bankruptcy. Tom Steinfort, one of the few western journalists to have reported from the hermit kingdom on multiple occasions, says North Korea desperately needs cash and is willing to do...

A growing list of human rights violators and authoritarian regimes around the world published messages congratulating Russian strongman Vladimir Putin on his overwhelming “victory” in a three-day sham presidential election that concluded on Sunday. Leaders such as genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un, and the heads of Russia’s satellites in Latin America – Cuba’s figurehead “president” Miguel Díaz-Canel and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro – extended their support and confidence in Putin after securing another six years in power through a largely ceremonial “election” with no meaningful opposition voices on the ballot and widespread reports of...

The communist regime of North Korea reportedly fired several ballistic missiles on Monday, an apparent gesture of “welcome” to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who landed in Seoul, South Korea, on Sunday to attend President Joe Biden’s “Summit for Democracy.” The “Summit for Democracy” is an event Biden founded virtually in 2021, ostensibly to bring together the leaders of the free world to discuss ways to protect the integrity of free states and combat authoritarianism. The “Summit for Democracy” has been met with ridicule and alarm in prior iterations, as the inaugural summit featured the State Department causing a “technical...

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi is among the first to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his “decisive” win in Russia’s presidential election, state media reports. “The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a message sincerely congratulated Vladimir Putin on his decisive victory and re-election as the President of the Russian Federation,” state news agency IRNA reports. Chinese President Xi Jinping also sends a congratulatory message to Putin, saying his re-election “fully reflects the support of the Russian people,” Beijing’s state media reports.

The world’s despots have rushed to congratulate Vladimir Putin for his all-but-assured Russian election win. -snip- North Korean media says Kim Jong-un sent his congratulations via his embassy in Russia this morning – unsurprising as North Korea has provided Putin with supplies and munitions for his war in Ukraine. Putin has also received well-wishes and congratulations from the authoritarian ruler of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla. ‌The presidents of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and Bolivia, Luis Arce, joined the small repressive group hailing Putin’s overwhelming victory

A United Airlines Boeing 737-800 flight landing safety...missing external panel... The US Navy announcing an 18-month delay in delivery of the "USS Enterprise" aircraft carrier... "I could not be the man I am and abandon the fight at this point" Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowing to stay on even as his Liberal Party trails badly... In France a 15-year-old student taken into custody after threatening the principal of his middle school with a knife... Five wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's... North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un overseeing air warfare drills today urging more... "no new guns" Those...

The prospect of Joe Biden being defeated by Donald Trump is a signal to every hostile foreign power that the next 50 weeks may be their last opportunity to take military action exploiting POTUS's and his national security team's weakness, Indecisiveness, and incompetence. Our degraded military preparedness, the presence of possibly tens of thousands of saboteurs and guerillas who came over our nonexistent borders, and the failure of Team Biden to adequately punish the Houthis for 160+ attacks on our troops all beckon aggression. China has made no secret of its plan to take over Taiwan, and Iran wants to...

SEOUL -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's declaration that he is abandoning unification with South Korea, after more than 50 years of alternating progress and stagnation, hints at greater confidence in Pyongyang's military capabilities -- with apparent aid from Russia. South Korean media recently took note of a change in the North: Weather forecasts on Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central Television switched from a map that highlighted the entire Korean Peninsula to one that only marked the northern half. This was around the same time that Kim declared in a January speech that North Korea should "completely eliminate such concepts...

Moscow and Tehran will strengthen their security partnership and team up to counter sanctions imposed by the West, a key architect of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has said. Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council, announced closer cooperation between the allies after a meeting with the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Akbar Ahmadian. Ties between Tehran and Moscow have deepened since the start of the war in Ukraine, with Iran supplying Russian forces with Shahed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which have wreaked havoc on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Leon Trotsky, founder of the Red Army and Stalin’s archrival said words to the effect, “You may not be interested in war. But war is interested in you.” In 1940, Trotsky found war personally when he was assassinated in his well-guarded compound in Mexico City by one of Stalin’s people. Mexico for years was a playground for KGB and now FSB personnel, with the American Government essentially ceding Mexico to the foreign adventurism of Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea; a veritable Mos Eisley of international rogues. Currently, the ungoverned spaces of Mexico are the domain for Chinese overseers of...