Free Republic

All the narratives are wearing off. Vietnam was a pointless war and we lost. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Afghanistan was a waste. And we gained nothing from any of those wars. Saudi Arabia has nuclear weapons and the 19 terrorists from 9/11 were all Saudis. Did we go to war with them? Nope. North Korea has nukes. Little rocket man hasn’t blown us all up yet but we were told he was going to. Pakistan and China have nukes as well. And big bad Russia has nuclear weapons. We were told Putin was going to...

Russia's oil price in roubles has fallen to a two-year low below the 4,000 rouble per barrel mark and some 40% lower than planned in the federal budget, data showed, piling pressure on the Kremlin, already saddled with a burgeoning budget deficit. -snip- According to Reuters calculations, the average price of Russia's mix of Urals and ESPO blends dipped on May 2 to $48.92 per barrel, or 3,987 roubles, which is more than 40% below the 6,726 roubles the government had originally planned for this year. That's the lowest since May 2023, according to Reuters data. It is also still...

Oil producing countries are bracing for a bumpy ride this year, with a precipitous drop in prices to the lowest levels in four years seen as the initial, alarming sign of looming turmoil. A price drop benefits any country seeking to cut its fuel bill. But in oil producing nations, lower prices can feed economic troubles, and sometimes political unrest, as governments slash spending. Analysts who had already been predicting lower oil prices because of softening demand amid increased global production said the possibility of a tariff trade war and the overall climate of uncertainty could well deepen producers’ woes....

Paul Sperry @paulsperry_ How Robert Mueller helped Saudi Arabia cover up its role in 9/11 attacks From nypost.com 2:51 PM · Apr 29, 2025

The day after a deadly attack on tourists killed 26 people in the mountain town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, India announced it was closing a border with Pakistan, downgrading its diplomatic ties and suspending a crucial water treaty. The Indus Waters Treaty lays out how India and Pakistan use water from six rivers that flow through both countries. It was negotiated by the World Bank in 1960 and affects hundreds of millions of people on either side of the border. India's foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, told reporters on Tuesday night that the treaty will remain suspended until Pakistan "credibly...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke via phone on Tuesday with US President Donald Trump, the American leader said, declaring that the pair “are on the same side of every issue.” The call covered “numerous subjects including Trade, Iran, etc.,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, adding that the conversation went “very well.” Notably, Trump did not include Gaza or the 59 hostages being held there in his list of topics discussed amid the ongoing impasse in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. However, according to a report in Axios, the pair did talk about efforts to reach...

Ten years ago, when President Barack Obama and other leaders reached a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program, Saudi Arabia was dismayed.Saudi officials called it a "weak deal" that had only emboldened the kingdom's regional rival, Iran. They cheered when President Trump withdrew from the agreement a few years later.Now, as a second Trump administration negotiates with Iran on a deal that might have very similar contours to the previous one, the view from Saudi Arabia looks quite different.The kingdom's Foreign Ministry issued a statement recently saying that it hoped the talks, mediated by neighboring Oman, would enhance...

As the Line gigaproject continues to grow in the Saudi desert, some new construction details have been announced that highlight the mind-boggling challenge of turning a huge tract of rugged landscape into a futuristic megacity, including its reported use of one fifth of the entire world's currently available steel.To recap, the Line is the key part of Saudi Arabia's Neom project, which is itself part of a larger push to transform the country's predominantly oil-based economy into a tourism-focused one as fossil fuel use is inevitably reduced in the coming years.The plan is for the Line to eventually have a...

The BRICS group of nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—has long aimed to challenge Western-controlled financial systems and reduce the world’s reliance on the US dollar. Now, that mission is getting an unexpected push, thanks to new tariff policies introduced by US President Donald Trump. BRICS Bloc Gains Momentum Amid US Trade Setbacks Trump has declared what he calls “Liberation Day,” a move that marks one of the biggest protectionist trade shifts since the 1930s. These new tariffs target both enemies and allies, and are expected to slow trade, increase prices in the US, and put brakes on global...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Tesla officially launched in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, marking a new chapter in the company’s global expansion after Elon Musk ’s troubled relationship with the kingdom — but the Middle East country’s extreme heat could pose a challenge for its electric vehicle performance and battery efficiency. Musk and Saudi Arabia have had a complicated history. Back in 2018, the Tesla CEO claimed he had secured funding from the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund to take the company private. That deal never happened, leading to lingering tensions. With the launch of its first showroom and service center...

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister arrived in the United States on Tuesday (Apr 8) for an official visit aimed at planning US President Donald Trump's expected trip to the kingdom later this spring, a source close to the Saudi royal court told Reuters. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud will also discuss Gaza and the status of Yemen's Houthis during meetings with US government officials, the source said. The trip was scheduled before last week's US tariffs announcement, the source added. Trump's tariff offensive has rattled markets and raised fears of a global recession that could drive down the price of oil,...

[Wow! What condescension! This article is more about what this Saudi Swine thinks about us than any recommendation about Isreal. But more than anything else it tells us how our Saudi "friends" think. - ML/NJ] Recently I read a report that the daughter of US Vice President Cheney, Elizabeth Cheney, a deputy assistant secretary of state, had supervised a training program on democracy for some 50 Arab women from 12 countries. Among the women were two Saudis. (I did wonder what qualifications Ms. Cheney had for this particular job. Does she have one other than her father’s being vice president?...

The letter added that the U.S. has learned “from credible public sources” that Al-Dawalibi “was a collaborator with the Hitler regime during World War II,” and spent the war years “as the personal secretary to Nazi collaborator Amin Al-Husseini, the former Mufti of Jerusalem.” Al-Dawalibi, the letter added, “was a known anti-Semite and served as an informer for Hitler’s security police.”

Rumors are swirling around ActBlue, a key fundraising platform for the Democrats, which has repeatedly given money to progressive politicians and far-left groups like Black Lives Matter. Critics, including lawmakers and investigative journalists, have noticed suspicious financial activity that may indicate a vast network of fraud. For context, the House Administration Committee recently uncovered evidence that illegal donations from China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela might have been laundered to Democratic campaigns through ActBlue. In response, the committee sent a letter to ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones to begin an investigation. In any case, Walter Curt, a prominent investigative journalist, took to...

---Down 7.35% as I post this--- Eight key OPEC+ producers on Thuesday agreed to raise combined crude oil output by 411,000 barrels per day, speeding up the pace of their scheduled hikes and pushing down oil prices...The group was widely expected to implement an increase of just under 140,000 barrels per day next month.

US decision to amass B-2 bombers at Diego Garcia is result of Gulf Arab monarchs closing airspace to American warplanes in event of war with Iran Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have imposed a ban on US warplanes using their air fields or skies to attack Iran after US President Donald Trump over the weekend threatened to bomb the country. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait have all told the US they will not permit their airspaces or territories to be used as a launchpad against Iran, including for refuelling and rescue operations, a senior US official told...

Reports this week indicated that US President Donald Trump may visit Saudi Arabia in the coming months. This is important because it would be his first trip abroad as president. It will also be a repeat of a trip he took during his first term. During his first term, in May 2017, he travelled to Saudi Arabia for the US-Arab-Islamic Summit. He met with Saudi King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during that trip, among other leaders who attended During the May 2017 trip, Trump said, “I stand before you as a representative of the American People, to...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine could be placed under a “temporary administration” as part of a peace process that could include help from North Korea and other Moscow allies, according to Russian state media. Speaking to a group of servicemen in Russia’s northern port of Murmansk, Putin laid out several provisions for a peace process to end the three-year war launched by Moscow in February 2022, according to Russia’s state news agency, TASS. Among Putin’s many suggestions was a call for new elections in Ukraine and the “signing of key accords” once the country is under international administration,...

Grok: Expressed in billions of dollars list the five countries and five corporations that will benefit most from the U.S. military activity to eliminate shipping disruptions caused by the Houthi near the Red Sea. China is 1st. 🇺🇸 isn’t in the top 5... ...

"BREAKING: Pete Hegseth answered a question about the Signal Chats: "So you're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again to include the, I don't know, the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia, or the fine people on both sides hoax or suckers and losers hoax." "So this is the guy that pedals in the garbage. This is what he does." "I would love to comment on the Houthi campaign because of the skill and courage of our troops, I've monitored it very closely from the beginning."' ...