Free Republic

This spring and summer Iran has attacked six foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf; tried to block a British ship in the Strait of Hormuz; flown a drone next to an American ship, forcing the U.S. to shoot it down; and captured another British oil tanker. All of this, writes Steven Cook, is proof that the United States is abandoning the Persian Gulf, despite decades of promises that it would never do so, and letting Iran effectively take over: The United States has invested great sums in the Middle East over many decades to undertake a few important tasks—notably...

EXECUTIVE ORDER BLOCKING PROPERTY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF VENEZUELA... All property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in... unrestricted immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States of aliens determined to meet one or more of the criteria in section 1(b) of this order would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and...

(Reuters) - China has approved wheat imports from the Russian region of Kurgan, the Chinese customs office said on Friday, bringing Russia a step closer to its goal of dramatically increasing grain exports. It also approved soybean imports from all parts of Russia, the General Administration of Customs said in a separate statement on its website, having all but halted U.S. soy imports as the trade dispute between Beijing and Washington deepened. China was the top buyer of U.S. soybeans until Beijing slapped a 25% tariff on shipments last year in response to U.S. tariffs on a range of Chinese...

In case of war with the U.S., Tehran can draw on 200,000 Mideast proxy militants to attack Israel. But less well-known are Hezbollah’s overseas Black Ops units - and both Israeli and American targets are in their sights

Explosions have been reported on Monday at ammunition depot located at the military base in the Achinsk District of the Krasnoyarsk Region. "The explosion went off in an ammunition depot, evacuation is being carried out," a source in the region’s emergency services told TASS on Monday. A source in a local emergencies service told TASS that one serviceman died as a result of the blasts. However, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry has dismissed this information. Eight people have been injured, including two military officers, the local hospital informed TASS.

The Islamic State terror group continues to pose a real and present danger, according to the latest United Nations six-month report on jihadist activities. Islamic State (ISIS) leadership “aims to adapt, survive and consolidate in the core area and to establish sleeper cells at the local level in preparation for eventual resurgence, while using propaganda to maintain the group’s reputation as the leading global terrorist brand – the ‘virtual caliphate,’” the report declares. “When it has the time and space to reinvest in an external operations capability, ISIL will direct and facilitate international attacks in addition to the ISIL-inspired attacks...

The White House is on the verge of taking steps to protect thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States from deportation, even as it finds new ways to restrict the ability of asylum-seekers from other countries to claim refuge in the U.S. The proposal was confirmed by a senior administration official and other U.S. officials familiar with the matter, and it could include work permits. It is controversial inside the Trump administration, which has sought to restrict immigration, and could provoke a backlash from some of Trump's allies. But the administration says it does not want to put Venezuelans...

Ramón Saúl Sánchez, a Cuban pro-democracy leader who has been active in the struggle against communism for 50 years, recently received notice that the U.S. government denied his request for permanent residence in the country. If returned to the island, “they will execute me or put me in prison for the rest of my life,” Sánchez told Breitbart News. Sánchez has been in the United States for 52 years. For decades, he has advocated for peaceful acts of resistance against the Castro regime – from hunger strikes to highway sit-ins to the iconic flotillas of the Democracy Movement, Sánchez’s organization,...

Russian opposition leader Lyubov Sobol is among more than 300 people detained over an unauthorised protest in Moscow. What are the protests about? Authorities detained more than 1,000 demonstrators last weekend during a demonstration, one of the biggest crackdowns in years. Election authorities have barred opposition candidates from taking part in Moscow city authority elections planned for 8 September. Officials said many of the signatures required for their candidacy applications were invalid. But protesters say they were excluded for political reasons. What's been happening in Moscow? Authorities have launched an investigation into the protests. On Friday, they detained a number...

United States carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the power sector and the broader economy have declined 61 percent between 2006 and 2014, mainly from "switching from coal-to-gas-powered generation," according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Second Installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review, January 2017.  These environmentally sound numbers from higher use of natural gas can also be translated globally to help with pollution in countries such as China, India, and the entire continent of Africa. The U.S. now uses natural gas converted to liquid natural gas (LNG) from shale deposits in states such as Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania to...

Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kevin McAleenan renewed a temporary amnesty program for about 7,000 Syrian nationals who have been allowed to remain in the United States since 2012. On Thursday, McAleenan announced that he would extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for thousands of Syrian nationals living across the U.S. for 18 months — meaning 7,000 Syrians will be allowed to remain in the country through March 21, 2021. ... The Trump administration has been approving and renewing TPS for foreign nationals in the U.S. at Obama era levels. For instance, in Fiscal Year 2018, the Trump administration...

RUSH: We’re gonna be having a little bit more exploration today on Tulsi Gabbard versus Kamala Harris. But just a little teaser here. The state of California has begun to hide the official record of Kamala Harris as attorney general so people cannot go look it up and find out that Tulsi Gabbard is right. Now, folks, these are people that have been turning over every stone and rock looking for mythical information that Trump cheated with Russia. Now the same people demanding all of this transparency are hiding and covering up the official record of Kamala Harris because, despite...

The US has formally withdrawn from a key nuclear treaty with Russia, raising fears of a new arms race. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was signed by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. It banned missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 km (310-3,400 miles). But earlier this year the US and Nato accused Russia of violating the pact by deploying a new type of cruise missile, which Moscow has denied. The Americans said they had evidence that Russia had deployed a number of 9M729 missiles - known to Nato as SSC-8. This accusation...

Responding to questions about how he would avoid a nuclear arms race following the INF treaty's demise, Mr Trump said his administration had been speaking to Russia "about a pact for nuclear, so that they get rid of some, we get rid of some". "We'd certainly have to include China at some point," he added. Mr Trump said such a treaty would be "a great thing for the world" and that he believed it would happen. The US has accused Russia of violating the deal by deploying a number of 9M729 missiles - known to Nato as SSC-8. This accusation...

Severe wildfires are burning across an area about the size of Massachusetts in the vast Russian region of Siberia—and now the resulting smoke is arriving in North America, according to satellite imagery. Summer wildfires in Siberia are relatively common, however, the situation this year is particularly bad with around 2.7 million hectares currently burning across six Russian regions, according to the country's Federal Forest Agency. The government has declared a state emergency in five of these regions in response to the fires, which experts say have been fueled by a mix of record-high temperatures in some areas, lightning storms and...

Trump told reporters Thursday that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ways to improve trade and wildfires blazing in Siberia. He made no mention of either the new sanctions or whether they came up during the phone call. President Donald Trump slapped new sanctions on Russia for its poisoning of an ex-spy in the United Kingdom in 2018...Trump, who signed the executive order Thursday, has been reluctant to impose sanctions against Russia in his efforts to improve relations between Washington and Moscow.

The United States has put NATO members on edge by withdrawing from a landmark arms control pact with Russia on Friday, the military alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN Friday. Speaking to CNN's Hala Gorani, the Norwegian politician called the end of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Moscow a "serious setback." "I'm part of a political generation that was shaped during the 1980s, where we all were concerned for the risk of nuclear war and where we were actually able to reach the INF treaty that didn't only reduce the missiles but banned all intermediate range missiles...

A historic arms-control treaty signed three decades ago by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was scrapped after President Trump decided to withdraw Friday. The move to scrap the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty comes amid the administration’s assessment that Russia was in “material breach of the treaty” and made no effort to “come back into compliance” with the agreement, a senior White House official said. Russia was given a six-month period, in accordance with the treaty, as a “final opportunity to come back into compliance” with the agreement, but the government headed by President Vladimir Putin “has...

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA)’s campaign press secretary suggested Russia was behind Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) after she landed an effective blow on Harris’ record as a prosecutor during the Democrat debates on Wednesday night. Her press secretary, Ian Sams, tweeted shortly after the attack an NBC News article from February 2019 claiming the “Russian propaganda machine” was promoting Gabbard: “Reporters writing their stories with eyes on the modern-day assignment desk of Twitter, read this: ‘The Russian propaganda machine that tried to influence the 2016 election is now promoting the presidential aspirations of a controversial Hawaii Democrat,'” he tweeted. He later...

A local news bureau reported “shock” in the German city of Stuttgart after a 36-year-old man was hacked to death with what appeared to be a katana-type sword in the middle of the street on Wednesday afternoon. The attack took place in front of dozens of witnesses and was filmed by passers-by on mobile phones from multiple angles, and saw a man, a 36-year old German resident of Kazakhstan origin, lying on the floor and being repeatedly hacked at and stabbed with a sword, reports German newspaper Bild.