Free Republic

The Kremlin said it “strongly condemns” the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran after the militant group announced his death early Wednesday. Hamas said the political leader was killed in an Israeli strike in Iran, where he was attending the inauguration ceremony of the country’s new president. The group vowed that the killing would “not go unanswered.” “We believe that such actions are directed against attempts to establish peace in the region and can significantly destabilize an already tense situation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. His comments mirrored those issued earlier by the Russian Foreign...

The situation with Russian payments to China continues to deteriorate: Chinese banks have begun to return about 80% of transfers in yuan to Russia, informed sources told Kommersant. According to them, the Chinese side has been tightening requirements "increasingly" since December 2023. Then US President Joe Biden signed a decree allowing the US Treasury to impose secondary sanctions against credit institutions of third countries for cooperation with Russian sanctioned companies and assistance to the military-industrial complex (MIC). After another tightening of sanctions in June, when the United States included all sanctioned persons, including Russian banks, in the definition of the...

Well, that's it. The great American electoral agon is over at last. Now George W. Bush -- the duly elected, finally legitimate president of the United States -- can get back to doing what he does best: killing people for corporate profit and personal aggrandizement. Yes, it's a hard blow for the world. Yes, it's a deep shame for American democracy, poisoned by lies, fear, greed and hysteria. Yes, it means that tens of thousands of innocent people will now be killed -- by more war, more neglect, more ignorance, more repression, more brutality, more hatred, more fanaticism. Yes, it...