Free Republic

A senior official who dismantled the US government’s Russian disinformation unit is married to a Russian woman with links to the Kremlin, The Telegraph can reveal. Darren Beattie has provoked alarm within the State Department since being appointed in February for his ardent pro-Russian views. He has been noted for his focus on destroying the agency tasked with tackling Kremlin propaganda. Mr Beattie, the acting under-secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, is married to a woman whose uncle has taken several roles in Russian politics and once received a personal “thank you” message from Vladimir Putin.

So far, American consumers have been shielded from much of the impact. But as the world of international shipping adjusts to his policies, the president is facing a potential reckoning. With the US-China trade war starting to gum up container traffic between the world’s two biggest economies, freight companies are warning of plunging bookings and a surge in “blank sailings” – where ports are skipped or voyages are called off altogether. Earlier this week, America’s most powerful retail executives trooped into the White House to deliver a blunt prognosis: tariffs on Chinese goods risked causing “empty shelves” in two weeks...

Donald Trump is holding a gun to the head of Volodymyr Zelensky, demanding huge reparations payments and laying claim to half of Ukraine’s oil, gas, and hydrocarbon resources as well as almost all its metals and much of its infrastructure. The latest version of his “minerals deal”, obtained by The Telegraph, is unprecedented in the history of modern diplomacy and state relations. “It is an expropriation document,” said Alan Riley, an expert on energy law at the Atlantic Council. “There are no guarantees, no defence clauses, the US puts up nothing. “The Americans can walk away, the Ukrainians can’t. I’ve...

Ukraine reports strikes just hours after Russian leader agreed to suspend attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure in a call with US president. Vladimir Putin rejected Donald Trump’s proposal for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine after a “frank” phone call on Tuesday between the two presidents. Instead, the Russian leader agreed to a 30-day pause in attacks on energy plants and infrastructure and to hold further talks on stopping hostilities in the Black Sea.

Donald Trump is considering pulling US troops from Germany and redeploying them to Eastern Europe, The Telegraph can reveal.Mr Trump is weighing up withdrawing some 35,000 active personnel out of Germany in a move that would further sour US-Europe relations.The US president, who has repeatedly warned that Europe must commit more to its defensive capabilities, is becoming increasingly frustrated that the continent is “pushing for war”, sources close to the administration said.Around 160,000 active-duty personnel are stationed outside of the United States, a vast quantity of whom are in Germany.

Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country.The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv. The Telegraph has obtained a draft of the pre-decisional contract, marked “Privileged & Confidential’ and dated Feb...

The British paper The Telegraph claims to have has access to a draft of the ‘pre-decisional contract’, sent by the US to Volodymyr Zelensky, dealing with a demand for a $500bn ‘payback’ from Ukraine for the aid already delivered. The document, marked ‘Privileged & Confidential’ and dated Feb 7 2025, has caused ‘consternation and panic’ in Kiev, according to the Telegraph report. The writer Ambrose Evans Pritchard is ‘shocked’ by the draconian terms, calls it ‘economic colonization of Ukraine’, a ‘burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved’. (“It states that the US and Ukraine should form a joint investment...

Nearly 100 domains hosting Sneaky 2FA phishing pages have been identified as of this month, suggesting moderate adoption by threat actors. "This kit is being sold as phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) by the cybercrime service 'Sneaky Log,' which operates through a fully-featured bot on Telegram," the company said in an analysis. "Customers reportedly receive access to a licensed obfuscated version of the source code and deploy it independently." Phishing campaigns have been observed sending payment receipt-related emails to entice recipients into opening bogus PDF documents containing QR code that, upon scanning, redirects them to Sneaky 2FA page Sekoia said the phishing pages...

If you were to ask Elon Musk or President-elect Donald Trump for their thoughts on Luton, you’d imagine both would likely stare at you with blank faces. Actually, it might register slightly more with Musk. His private jet once touched down at Luton Airport. In the past few days, though, the name of Luton’s most infamous export – who once won an apprenticeship to that very airport, in fact – has been on the lips of some of the incoming president’s closest advisers and supporters. In the 20 years since Tommy Robinson’s first prison stint (for assaulting an off-duty police...

Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov has been arrested by French police at an airport north of Paris. Mr Durov was detained after his private jet had landed at Le Bourget Airport, French media reported. According to officials the 39-year-old had been arrested under a warrant for offences related to the popular messaging app. Russia's embassy in France is taking "immediate steps" to clarify the situation, according to Russia's TASS state news agency.

Who really owns the paper? I’ve seen this before, but never at such a high-profile level. Journalists, including Bari Weiss, were squeezed out at the New York Times and targeted by campaigns coordinated by their colleagues with outside radical leftist outlets like Huffington Post, Vox, and The New Republic, but this time it went bigger than ever before. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos decided that his pet paper, The Washington Post, needed a change of management and brought in vets from the UK’s Telegraph. The Post’s wokes and some around the media decided that wouldn’t fly and began running hit pieces...

LOOMIS DAY | May 30 Each year on May 30th, Loomis Day recognizes the man who received the patent for wireless telegraphy in 1872. The Washington, D.C. dentist, Mahlon Loomis, received US patent number 129,971titled “An Improvement in Telegraphing” on wireless telegraphy in July of 1872 beating Guglielmo Marconi's United Kingdom patent by nearly 25 years. #LoomisDay Born on July 21, 1826, Loomis was also the inventor of artificial teeth and one of the earliest inventors of wireless communication. Loomis died on October 13, 1886. Leading up to his patent, Loomis conducted many experiments in electricity using kites flying miles...

Genre EphemeraNotes- When decoded, this paper tape recording of the historic message transmitted by Samuel F. B. Morse reads, "What hath God wrought?" Morse sent it from the Supreme Court room in the U.S. Capitol in Washington to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore. Morse's early system produced a paper copy with raised dots and dashes, which were translated later by an operator. Across the top of this artifact of his historic achievement Morse has given credit to Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of a good friend, for suggesting the message he sent. She found it in the Bible, Numbers...

Failed CNN boss Jeff Zucker still wants to stay in the media game. To that end he is leading an offer to buy the bankrupt British publishing group behind the Daily Telegraph newspaper and Spectator magazine. The New York Post reports Zucker, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi-backed investment group RedBird IMI, is ready to pitch $750 million to the Barclay family that would allow them to repay their nearly $1.4 billion debt to Lloyds Banking Group. RedBird, a venture capital firm that has $1 billion in capital, would then have an option to convert the loan secured against the...

There are occasionally posts that get missed when they are initially posted. These are the posts that start out bad and get worse. This writer is unsure how this particular one made that list, given that he follows the Telegraph specifically because of their notoriously bad takes. George Orwell was ‘sadistic, misogynistic, homophobic and sometimes violent’ https://t.co/GAps4MA8pM — The Telegraph (@Telegraph) October 15, 2023, (*** followed by extremely informative Community Note! ***)The Telegraph tries to cancel Orwell for crimethink. Now, if you ask us, that may be the most ironic thing ever posted. Apparently, according to the book, Wifedom, by...

What Hath God Wrought?On May 24, 1844, Samuel F. B. Morse dispatched the first telegraphic message over an experimental line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. The message, taken from the Bible, Numbers 23:23 and recorded on a paper tape, had been suggested to Morse by Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of a friend.

Someday, although I doubt I’ll be alive long enough to see it, history will note all the lies that have been made up, told and perpetrated against Donald J. Trump and his family. By then all of the intended damage will have  been inflicted and few will be left to care. And that is why we take great pleasure when somebody, like The Telegraph, is held accountable in the here-and-now for their libelous spreading of flagrant lies. So I’ve chosen to print The Telegraph’s retraction and apology to America’s First Lady, Melania Trump, in full: Following last Saturday’s (Jan 19)...

BENSON — A group of men on horseback rode into the Benson Post Office late Saturday morning delivering saddlebags of mail. Nineteen riders, members of the Navajo County White Mountain Sheriff’s Posse Search and Rescue team, rode 235 miles from the Lakeside, Arizona, post office to Benson. The 48th annual White Mountain Pony Express Mail Ride started Wednesday morning after the horsemen were officially sworn in by a postmaster at Lakeside, with the group arriving in Benson around 11 a.m. Saturday. The commemorative ride is organized to recreate a glamorized era of Western history that lasted a mere 18 months...

Federal employees are working closely with former Obama administration officials to thwart future President Donald Trump’s policies and initiatives, according to a report published by The Washington Post. Federal workers regularly consult with Obama-era political appointees about ways they can push back and potentially stymie Trump’s initiatives, according to the report. Dozens of federal workers attended a support group last weekend for civil servants seeking a place to hash out their issues with the Trump administration. Nearly 200 or more federal employees, many of whom worked for the Obama administration, have signed up for workshops meant to train people in...

A drunken mob of more than 20 thugs shouted "kill the Jews" as they stormed into a north London synagogue while young worshippers celebrated the end of the sabbath. The anti-Semitic abuse was hurled by the group of men and women as they first beat up a young man outside before chasing him inside, breaking windows and attacking others.