Free Republic

President Donald Trump told Time magazine in an interview published Friday that he will “very willingly” lead the U.S. into attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities if the regime does not make a deal to stop its program. Trump was, as usual, bullish about the prospects of making a deal and avoiding war, especially given the economic pressure he has restored on the regime. He added that he had not stopped Israel from attacking Iran on its own, but had not made it “comfortable” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make that choice. Asked if Netanyahu would “drag” the U.S. into...

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is due in Washington on Thursday to meet with President Donald Trump. She is expected to make a personal appeal for less punitive tariffs on European Union (E.U.) trade with the world’s biggest economy. Meloni is the first trans-Atlantic leader to sit down with Trump since he announced, and then quickly suspended, 20 percent tariffs on European exports. AFP reports Meloni — described by Trump as a “fantastic leader” who also aligns with his conservative views — has worked hard to keep communication channels open as Trump looks to rework trade with the E.U. through...

WASHINGTON/TAIPEI/VERONA, Italy- More than 50 nations have reached out to the White House to begin trade talks since U.S. President Donald Trump rolled out sweeping new tariffs, top officials said on Sunday as they defended levies that wiped out nearly $6 trillion in value from U.S. stocks last week and downplayed economic fallout. On Sunday morning talk shows, Trump's top economic advisers sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the U.S. in the global trade order. They also tried to minimize the economic shocks from last week's tumultuous rollout, ahead of Monday's expected bumpy opening of Asian...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces are preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize the pressure on Ukraine and strengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating position in ceasefire talks, Ukrainian government and military analysts said. The move could give Russian President Vladimir Putin every reason to delay discussions about pausing the fighting in favor of seeking more land, the Ukrainian officials said, renewing their country’s repeated arguments that Russia has no intention of engaging in meaningful dialogue to end the war.

President Donald Trump announced Friday that he has spoken with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) about making interest payments on loans for American-made cars tax deductible. While speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump revealed that he has spoken with the leaders of both chambers of Congress about his vision for tax deductions on loans for U.S.-made cars. “If you buy a car in the United States that’s made in the United States, if it’s manufactured here… if you borrow money you have interest payments, we’re going to let you deduct the...

President Donald Trump and European leaders cautiously welcomed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin saying he accepted the basic precepts of a ceasefire, but Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warns Moscow demanding concessions is a “predictable” bid to derail talks altogether. On Thursday, a delegation of American negotiators had talks in Moscow, Russia, in hope of agreeing step one of President Trump’s Ukraine peace plan, a 30-day ceasefire. President Putin said Russia supports the notion in general terms, but said “there are issues that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to discuss it with our American colleagues and partners”...

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on Tuesday that it is "too early" to discuss where the next round of talks between Russia and the US might take place. "It is too early to talk about this," Peskov stated, News.Az reports, citing foreign media. The first high-level talks took place in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh on Feb. 18, with both sides saying that the discussions primarily focused on normalizing diplomatic relations and the operations of their embassies. The Ukraine war was also discussed. On Feb. 27, delegations from both countries met in Istanbul, Türkiye for a second round of talks. This...

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that the bipartisan talks aimed at preventing a government shutdown have ended — at least temporarily — and accused GOP leaders in the lower chamber of abandoning the discussions. “House Republicans have made a decision to walk away from the four-corners discussions that involved House Democrats, Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans related to funding the government in a manner that meets the needs of the American people,” Jeffries said during a press briefing in the Capitol. The assertion was a sharp contradiction from the comments coming from the top appropriators in both...

Ukraine will enter into peace talks with President Putin as long as the U.S. and Europe give “more security guarantees” not to “abandon” the country in future, its President says. President Volodymyr Zelensky told an interviewer he would agree to sit down to “any form of discussion” with Russia as long as his international partners first guaranteed their long-term support to deter future Russian aggression. This would be essential to prevent the Ukraine war simply becoming a frozen conflict that Russia could re-start when convenient to Moscow in the future, as it had been between 2014-2022, he said. Speaking to...

The leftist Labour Party government is reportedly considering talks with Caribbean nations on the issue of reparations for the British Empire’s role in the slave trade. According to a report from The Telegraph, the Foreign Office is planning on holding a meeting with the Reparations Commission of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), a fifteen-nation bloc that advocates for slavery reparations from the West. The potential trip is reportedly being organised by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has previously called on former colonial powers to pay her country £3.9 trillion in reparations for slavery.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that excluding his country from talks between the U.S. and Russia about the war in Ukraine would be “very dangerous” and asked for more discussions between Kyiv and Washington to develop a plan for a ceasefire. Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Zelenskyy said Russia does not want to engage in ceasefire talks or to discuss any kind of concessions, which the Kremlin interprets as losing at a time when its troops have the upper hand on the battlefield.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) described recent talks about the United States acquiring Greenland as being a “responsible conversation.” During an interview on Fox News on Tuesday, Fetterman admitted that while he “would never support” taking Greenland “by force,” it would be a “responsible conversation” to talk about acquiring Greenland from Denmark, including “buying it outright.” Fetterman’s words come after President-elect Donald Trump has previously stated that the U.S. taking ownership of Greenland is an “absolute necessity” for national security and freedom. “There’s a lot of talk about Greenland, for example, and, I know there’s a lot of freakouts and of...

MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he is ready for a conversation with US President-elect Donald Trump at any time and agrees to meet with him. "I am ready for this [conversation], of course, at any time. And I will also be ready for a meeting, if he wants it," Putin said at the combined Direct Line Q&A and year-end press conference, when asked by an American journalist about a possible meeting with Trump. Putin noted that he did not know when he would meet with Trump. "First of all, I don't know when we...

A bipartisan group of senators has been discussing a “very secret” border deal for early 2025 — as red-state Democrats move to take action after the party’s embarrassing 2024 presidential election loss, according to a report. The illegal immigration crisis was a lightning-rod issue during the 2024 presidential race, with President-elect Donald Trump vowing to shut down the border and deport millions of undocumented migrants when he’s back in the White House in January. A small group of senators is considering a bipartisan border deal that would secure the 60 necessary votes to pass, Axios reported. Advertisement

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday indicated that bipartisan negotiations to avert the threat of a government shutdown this month are “on the right track,” but he warned against “divisive” provisions. Schumer said from the Senate floor that both parties are “making progress negotiating on a bill that can pass the House and Senate with bipartisan support.” “We need to keep divisive and unnecessary provisions out of any government funding extension, or else it will get harder to pass a [continuing resolution] in time,” he said. “For now, I’m pleased negotiations are on the right track, and I...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war. The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.” Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday’s Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.

Top Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that strongman Vladimir Putin is “ready for talks” to end the Ukraine war with American President-elect Donald Trump. Peskov was responding to questions about a report published by Reuters on Wednesday citing anonymous officials, claiming that Putin may be open to ending the ongoing invasion of Ukraine if Russia can keep control of much of the territory he has seized from the anonymous sources claimed that Putin “could broadly agree to freeze the conflict along the front lines.” Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, “annexing” its Crimean peninsula. After a...

Iranian officials signaled they might be willing to return to nuclear negotiations under the second Trump administration after meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi in Tehran last week. At a press conference on Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Grossi’s visit was “fruitful and good,” resulting in some “good agreements” with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. Baqaei said some “ambiguities and questions” were covered during talks with Grossi – an allusion to the IAEA director’s longstanding complaints about Iranian non-compliance with inspection requirements. Grossi warned ahead of his visit to Tehran that time was...

Israeli media revealed Sunday that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun secret talks with the Russian government on ending the ongoing war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah terrorists. Although Hezbollah is armed and funded by Iran, the terrorist group uses many Russian weapons. Moreover, Russia has relied on Iran for drones in its ongoing war in Ukraine, and is thought to hold some sway with the Iranian regime.

Former President Barack Obama argued Saturday that “everything a president says is serious,” a point he raised in an attempt to marginalize former President Donald Trump. Obama’s moral authority to lecture Trump is suspect due to his continued coverup of President Joe Biden’s health. Biden, who special counsel Robert Hur characterized as “an elderly man with a poor memory,” repeatedly delivered statements for years that raised eyebrows.