Free Republic

A U.S. Senate committee approved legislation on Wednesday that would help set the stage for the United States to confiscate Russian assets and hand them over to Ukraine for rebuilding after the destruction of the nearly two-year-long war. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 20 to 1 in favor of the unprecedented "Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act." If it were to pass the full Senate and House of Representatives and be signed into law by President Joe Biden, as expected, the act would pave the way for Washington's first-ever seizure of central bank assets from a...

China’s Year of the Ox, which began on Friday, is a fitting metaphor for the most formidable, and potentially dangerous, geopolitical challenge facing Joe Biden and the western democracies. In Chinese mythology, the ox is large, powerful and adept on land and water. It’s determined, stubborn, and takes a lot of stopping. Biden is well aware he has a fight on his hands that, if mishandled, could swiftly turn physical. Some analysts fear war with China is inevitable, sooner or later. So he is moving fast. In a first phone call to China’s president, Xi Jinping, last week, he raised...

The four-minute movie trailer was created to show Chairman Kim the power and glory that could be his if he lays down his nukes. President Trump pitched paradise to Kim Jong Un in a four-minute movie trailer made especially for the summit in Singapore last week, complete with cautionary tale, dramatic musical score and a lot left for the imagination. It features the two men and images of glory and strength: the perfect tease for the chubby millennial ruling North Korea known for killing off family members and playing video games. Kim is like Trump. They love screens and they...

Thousands of brave lives and billions of pounds have been lost since prime minister Tony Blair, president George W Bush and their followers thought the best way to make the world a better place was to get rid of tyrants by military force. To everyone’s cost we now know that was wrong. Instead, in an off-the-cuff remark, US President Donald Trump said this week that North Korea could swap its missile launch bases for beachside condominiums – what we’d call luxury apartments. It revealed one of the strongest motives behind the North Korean tyrant’s U-turn on nuclear weaponry. Looking across...

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. wouldn’t necessarily defend other NATO countries if they were attacked by Russia. In an interview with the New York Times, Mr. Trump essentially said the U.S. would not abide by the military alliance, one provision of which declares an attack on one to be an attack on all.

This can’t be true, can it? Most interesting news of #Iran hearing: IAEA will have to rely on #Iran to take samples at Parchin and other sites for its PMD investigation— Jackson Diehl (@JacksonDiehl) July 23, 2015

In the latest embarrassing blow to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who presided over the talks in Vienna, Abbas Araghchi insisted that Iran would refuse to be shackled by nuclear deal. According to the CIA's Open Source Center, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister has told state television that that he'd insisted the deal continued to allow Iran to 'buy weapons from wherever possible' as well as to 'provide weapons to whomever and whenever it considers appropriate'. Araghchi's worrying claims come just one day after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest religious authority, told supporters that nuclear deal would not change Iran's...

The deal just struck between the U.S., world powers, and Iran is an historic achievement that decreases the likelihood of an Iranian nuclear weapon and forestalls the risk of another costly U.S. war in the Middle East.But while the diplomats in Vienna are finished wrangling over the final details, the Obama administration is by no means finished fighting for the agreement’s survival. Congress has 60 days with which to review the deal for final approval, and while Republicans may not have a veto-proof majority, they — along with some Democrats — remain vehemently opposed to any plausible peaceful resolution.The debate...

A deal has been reached between the world powers and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program after a series of major American concessions, Ehud Yaari, the Middle East affairs commentator for Israel’s Channel 2 television, said Friday night. “It is done. It is done,” he said, and will be signed “early next week.” The aim of the agreement is to put a negotiated end to a 13-year standoff with Iran over its suspect nuclear program and to block its pathway to developing a nuclear bomb in exchange for lifting biting global sanctions. Israel’s leadership has relentlessly opposed the emerging agreement,...

The U.S. and other international negotiators reportedly have agreed to the outlines of an understanding with Iran that would allow for a final phase of nuclear talks. The Associated Press, citing officials, reported on the agreement, while noting that negotiators are still in a dispute over how much to make public. A press conference is about to begin to announce the details, but according to Reuters it looks like Iran has agreed to suspend much of its nuclear program.

The president who promised us that his health care legislation would allow us to keep our insurance plans and doctors now insists that his agreement with Iran will not allow it to keep a nuclear weapons program. What the two pledges have in common is that they are both lies. No matter how many times such statements are repeated and seconded by President Obama’s partisans and the press, they amount to serial, intentional and potentially fatal fraud. Now, some Americans may still trust President Obama, or at least be inclined to give his deal a chance. But that means buying...

The Obama administration’s nuke deal with Iran got a big thumbs-down Sunday from top lawmakers in both parties. “I don’t think you make them bargain in good faith by going squishy,” fumed Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel, as he joined a bipartisan chorus blasting the agreement that will slightly ease economic sanctions against the rogue Islamic regime in exchange for a pause of its nuclear program. “It’s disappointing to me that Iran is still going to be allowed to enrich [uranium] while they’re talking. I would have thought that that should be a prerequisite to any kind of talks,” Engel, the...

The first preliminary nuclear deal the six world powers (US, Russia, China, UK, France and German) signed with Iran before dawn Sunday, Nov. 24, at the end of a four-day marathon, failed to address the most questionable aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, i.e. its clandestine military dimensions. The accord confined itself to aspects of uranium enrichment and stockpiles. UN inspections were expanded – but not applied, for instance, to Iran’s concealed nuclear sites - or even the Parchin military base where Iran is suspected of having tested nuclear-related explosions. Israel, the Gulf States and others are therefore highly dubious of...

Iran has reached an agreement with world powers over its nuclear activities. In a televised address, the Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, welcomed the deal, saying the country had the right to continue its uranium enrichment programme.

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Today, the United States -- together with our close allies and partners -- took an important first step toward a comprehensive solution that addresses our concerns with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program.

Former Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker has warned of “sleeping war demons” in Europe and compared the current situation to the year before the outbreak of the first world war, when everybody took peace for granted. “For my generation, the common currency always meant politics of peace. Today, I am to some extent saddened to see that too many in Europe are again lost in petty national thought processes,” the Luxembourg Prime Minister said in an interview with Der Spiegel published on Monday (11 March). … “Those who think that the question of war can never be raised in Europe any...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Al Jazeera is reporting that American and Israeli flags are being burned in London. Israeli and US flags being burned in London according to Al Jazeera. We know that the University of Texas has evacuated their campus after a phoned-in bomb threat from Al-Qaeda. No bombs were found. Fargo, North Dakota, state university has ordered all employees and students off campus after receiving a bomb threat. But everything's okay because I got an e-mail from the Obama campaign. Ambassadors are being murdered, former SEALs are dying, embassies are burning across the Middle East, but don't worry, we...

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain held secret talks with Hitler's henchmen to work out ways of making the Nazis look more sympathetic to ordinary Britons, classified documents released last week reveal. The cloak-and-dagger meetings in London came shortly after Chamberlain signed his disastrous appeasement deal with Hitler in Munich in September 1938, declaring 'peace for our time' on his return to Britain. The meetings were held without the knowledge of the Cabinet and Foreign Office. Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax only learned of them later because of an MI5 mole in the German embassy. Two newly-declassified documents show Chamberlain was ready...

"On this trip, I discovered that both sides want reunification and that Korea is one, so I see hope on the Korean peninsula," Lee, who made the visit with his parents, Kyoung and Melissa Lee, told The Associated Press.

Realpolitik: At the start of the Nuclear Security Summit, we see an all-too-familiar gesture from our president. Is it a matter of courtesy, an idiosyncrasy or the administration's acceptance of a new world order? If there ever was an iconic tribute to the idea of U.S. exceptionalism, it was the fact that the American flag was never dipped during the parade of athletes at the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. We never dipped or bowed to anybody, with the possible exception of figurehead royalty.