Free Republic

The forgotten story of Andrew Jackson’s first military campaign in Asia. In the winter of 1832, a merchantman flying a Danish flag pulled into a port in Quallah Battoo in the Aceh Sultanate of what is now known as Indonesia. The vessel had set out from New York City half a year ago, had circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope, and had finally arrived here. That the vessel was named for a river in America did not strike the locals as strange and when its officers left the ship after rubbing themselves with tar to look like disreputable sailors, claiming...

An oil tanker blew up in the Strait of Hormuz after hitting a mine on Sunday, according to Iran’s military-linked state media, which also claimed that the Islamic Republic had intercepted at least six ships in the past 24 hours.The tanker, which was not immediately identified, allegedly strayed from Iran’s designated route in the strait before hitting a sea mine, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Tasnim news agency reported.Iran has repeatedly warned ships from using non-approved routes to sail through the Strait of Hormuz or risk coming under attack as tensions continue to flare with the US.

The Justice Department announced Monday that it snatched over 1,000 websites used to illegally stream matches during the just-completed FIFA World Cup. The final tally of sites snared includes the nearly 400 internet domains shut down by the end of June. The seizures in the U.S. occurred through three enforcement actions, the Justice Department said in a release. American authorities also worked with their counterparts in Latin America to block additional illegal streaming sites, including 14 in Argentina, 309 in Brazil, 1,140 in Colombia, 256 in the Dominican Republic, 223 in Ecuador and 28 in Peru.

In 1832 president Andrew Jackson deemed it of very high importance that the people of Quallah Battoo knew who America was. The result was one of the US Navy’s least known military escapades, when sailors and marines fought Sumatran pirates. Because, don’t all good stories involve pirates? Marines and Sailors Versus Pirates: The Quallah Battoo Expedition | 16:11 The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered 151,217 views | October 25, 2024

Iran warned Thursday that it would “crush” key targets in the Middle East if U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to target the country’s infrastructure in the coming days are carried out. Trump said in a Tuesday evening interview with Fox News that U.S. forces would target key Iranian infrastructure next week if a diplomatic breakthrough is not achieved. “Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants,” he said. “Next week comes the bridges. We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get...

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz until further notice and until the end of US “interference” in the region, after firing a warning shot at a vessel it says attempted to transit along an “unapproved” route, state media reports. The statement says the vessel subsequently stopped. It warns that no vessel will be allowed to cross the waterway, and if the “enemy” uses the decision as a “pretext” to make any “misstep,” this will be met with a “severe response.”

Several leading European nations now accept that ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz will need to pay fees to Iran and Oman, according to a Bloomberg report Thursday.The possibility of service fees following the US and Israeli war with Iran is now reportedly viewed by some EU countries as unavoidable. Some Gulf Arab officials are said to also privately share this view, though it may not reflect their governments' official positions. The type and amount of fees that nations would accept remains unclear. The US and Gulf Arab countries maintain that Iran and Oman cannot impose any charges for...

Iran's Revolutionary Guards attacked a Singapore-flagged commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News, posing a challenge to President Trump's efforts to reopen the critical shipping corridor. The ship's bridge was damaged after it was struck on its starboard side by an "unknown projectile" off the coast of Dahit, Oman, according to an advisory from the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre. The advisory said no casualties or environmental impact were reported. After the strike, the United Nations' International Maritime Organization temporarily paused a days-old plan to evacuate many of the vessels stranded...

Iran’s New "Insurance" Rule: Controlling the Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI —A British warship tried but failed to prevent Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from seizing a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week, intercepted radio communications show, fueling a wave of recriminations in London on Sunday over who was to blame for the incident last week. In recordings obtained by the shipping consultancy Dryad Global and posted on its website Sunday, a member of the Revolutionary Guard is heard ordering the British-flagged Stena Impero tanker to divert course toward Iran. “Alter your course,” the man says. “If you obey you will be safe.” A British naval officer...

Greenland police said they apprehended veteran environmental activist and anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson on an international arrest warrant issued by Japan. Watson, a 73-year-old Canadian-American citizen, is a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society whose direct action tactics, including high-seas confrontations with whaling vessels, have drawn support from A-list celebrities and featured in the reality television series “Whale Wars.” He was arrested Sunday when his ship docked in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, a police statement said. He later appeared before a district court to look into a request to detain him pending a decision on his possible extradition to...

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, is already considered a significant vulnerability due to the presence of Yemen's Houthi terrorists.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Wednesday that the strait was open. He then put the onus on other countries to ensure the flow of traffic.“It’s time for the rest of the world to step up and ensure that [the strait] stays open after President Trump and the War Department brought Iran to the place where they’re voluntarily opening it right now, as was announced last night,” Hegseth said during a Wednesday Pentagon press briefing.Iran said Thursday there are now two routes – both controlled by Tehran – that ships could use due to the presence of mines in the...

Following the US-Iran Ceasefire, Iran announced a closing of the international traffic separation scheme by mining the area and re-routing ships through a new traffic pattern within the territorial waters of Iran and under jurisdiction and control.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the month-old war in the Middle East on Saturday, claiming two missile launches at Israel. About 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the region. And Pakistan’s government said that regional powers plan to meet Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting.

Iran appears to be setting itself up as the gatekeeper for the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important artery for oil shipments. The move could cement Tehran’s de facto chokehold over the crucial waterway and formalize its ability to keep its own oil flowing to China. Iranian communications to the United Nations maritime authority and the experience of ships transiting the Strait suggest the creation of something akin to a “toll booth.” Ships must enter Iranian waters and be vetted by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. At least two vessels have paid for passage. Traffic through the Strait has...

In the early 19th century, the Barbary Pirates—Muslim corsairs from North Africa's Islamic states—terrorized the Mediterranean and Atlantic, seizing ships, enslaving crews, and demanding tribute from nations too weak or unwilling to fight back. European powers and the young United States eventually crushed them with cannon fire and resolve. Today, history repeats in the Persian Gulf, but on a far grander, more menacing scale. The **Islamic Republic of Iran**—a regime steeped in theocratic fascism, jihadist ideology, and centuries-old supremacist impulses—has revived the pirate's playbook with 21st-century sophistication. According to recent reporting, Tehran has begun charging select commercial vessels **transit "fees"**...

PARIS (AP) — France’s navy, working with intelligence provided by the United Kingdom, on Thursday intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that traveled from Russia, in a mission targeting the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet, officials said. French maritime authorities for the Mediterranean said the ship, the Grinch, is suspected of operating with a false flag. The French navy is escorting the ship to anchorage for more checks, the statement said. The tanker departed from the city of Murmansk in northwestern Russia, it said.

The UK's Ministry of Defence confirmed that it had provided "enabling support" to the US during its operation to seize the tanker. US forces have boarded a Venezuela-linked sanctioned oil tanker in North Atlantic after pursuing it for weeks, the US military announced on Wednesday. "The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a US federal court after being tracked by USCGC Munro," US European Command said in a post on X. Russia sent a submarine to escort the empty oil tanker the US military had been pursuing and attempting to seize for weeks,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump expressed concern that his wife, Melania, may now be aware of what he got her for Christmas after news reports surfaced that the U.S. military had seized a Venezuelan oil tanker this week. When the story broke, Trump reportedly scolded White House staff for potentially spoiling the surprise that he was giving his wife the one-of-a-kind gift of a seized tanker filled with crude oil. "I hate to think the surprise is ruined," Trump told friends. "I know she would love to have opened that tanker on Christmas morning and have it be a...