Free Republic

European nations are increasingly optimistic that they can support Ukraine financially and militarily against Russia even if President Trump decides to wash his hands of the conflict, as he often threatens, and instead focuses on normalizing relations with Moscow. But even with their best efforts, the Europeans cannot replace all of what the United States provides Ukraine — most important, real-time intelligence about Russian forces, incoming missiles and how and where to target the enemy. Ukraine’s ability to fight effectively relies largely on that American intelligence. “The Ukrainians don’t want this to be cut off no matter what,” said Camille...

European leaders felt certain about one thing after a whirlwind tour by Trump officials — they were entering a new world where it was harder to depend on the United States.Many critical issues were left uncertain — including the fate of Ukraine — at the end of Europe’s first encounter with an angry and impatient Trump administration. But one thing was clear: An epochal breach appears to be opening in the Western alliance.After three years of war that forged a new unity within NATO, the Trump administration has made clear it is planning to focus its attention elsewhere: in Asia,...

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago convinced Europe’s leaders that they needed to spend more money on defense. On Monday, leaders from across the European Union and Britain will meet in Brussels to debate a vexing question: how to pay for it.It is a concern made more acute by President Trump’s return to the White House.The United States is the largest military funder of Ukraine’s war effort, but Mr. Trump has suggested he will rapidly withdraw U.S. financial and military support and leave it to the Europeans. He has also insisted that NATO nations ramp up defense outlays...

Iran faces a dilemma after the Israeli strikes on Saturday. If it retaliates, it risks further escalation at a time when its economy is struggling, its allies are faltering, its military vulnerability is clear and its leadership succession is in play. If it does not, it risks looking weak to those same allies, as well as to more aggressive and powerful voices at home. Iran is already in the middle of a regional war. Since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has moved swiftly to damage the militant group in Gaza and other Iranian proxies, including Hezbollah, the...

The New York Times published an analysis Friday in which it claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “gone rogue” by killing terrorists who had killed Israeli citizens, rather than acquiescing. The story, by Steven Erlanger, is just one of many stories that appeared Friday in the center-left media — both in Israel and the United States — accusing Netanyahu of chasing victory at the price of a ceasefire-hostage deal. Erlanger, citing “analysts,” wrote: The assassinations of senior Hezbollah and Hamas figures abroad have now sharply raised the risks of a larger regional war as Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah...

BAGHDAD — Lawmakers in Iraq voted on Sunday to require the government to end the presence of American troops in the country after the United States ordered the killing of the Iranian leader of the elite Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, on Iraqi soil. The decision to heed the demands of angry Shiite factions and politicians came as hundreds of thousands of mourners poured into the streets of Iran to pay their respects to General Suleimani, the most powerful figure in the country after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The vote is not final until Prime Minister Adel...

All over Europe, voters are turning in a conservative direction, and against the autocratic European Union and its big government enablers. New York Times reporters Steven Erlanger and Stephen Castle write a dripping-with-disdain account of local election results in the UK, which will be followed tomorrow by results for the European Parliament. To them, conservatgives are “right wingers” or “far-right” and those who object to EU takeover of sovereignty are “anti-Europe.” Voters in Britain sent a forceful message of discontent to established political parties on Friday, as returns from local elections showed an even stronger following than expected for the...

LONDON — President Obama spent Wednesday in Brussels talking up the importance of the security relationship between Europe and the United States, but it is considered unlikely that Russia’s seizure of Crimea will prompt increased European military spending at a time of economic anemia and budget cuts. NATO and the European Union regard the Russian move in Ukraine as a wake-up call, a reminder that hard power can easily trump 21st-century assumptions about Europe as a sphere of trade, international law and cooperation. Despite the newly militant tone, NATO members will continue to spend paltry amounts on defense, experts say....

You see it in sectors like food, consumer products and transport companies,” he said. The Israeli airline El Al is now privatized. “But they continue not to fly on Saturday,” Mr. Melnick said, in order to keep ultra-Orthodox customers. Tamar El-Or, an anthropologist at Hebrew University, studied ultra-Orthodox shopping patterns. “There are lines of cellphones and credit cards and Internet suppliers and software and DVDs and clothes and so many things produced or altered or koshered for them, because they have a certain organized power to get the producers to make what they want,” she said.