Free Republic

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...

British security chiefs are alarmed at Donald Trump’s choice for the most senior intelligence role in America and hope she is blocked, The Telegraph can reveal. Tulsi Gabbard is facing intense scrutiny over her perceived support for Russia and Syria as she seeks to become the US director of national intelligence, an appointment that needs US Senate approval. The Telegraph understands that there is also deep disquiet at senior levels of the UK security services over the prospect of her appointment, which would give her access to the most sensitive secret intelligence. After being grilled by the Senate intelligence committee...

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...

The Independent Press Standards Organisation has upheld a complaint filed by the Muslim Association of Britain against The Telegraph for inaccurately labeling the organization as “extremist.” The decision, announced on Thursday, followed a seven-month investigation into an article published in March, which wrongly described MAB as extremists. “IPSO has upheld our complaint against The Telegraph for falsely labelling us as an extremist organisation, after Michael Gove’s abused parliamentary privilege in promoting a discredited and politicised definition of extremism,” said MAB in a post on X. The regulator concluded that the newspaper violated the Editors’ Code of Practice by “failing to...

Daria Korkh made a good show of a stiff upper lip as she prepared to abandon her home.“We don’t want to, but we’ve got to,” she said bluntly. “The shops and supermarkets are closing. Medical facilities are still open, but it’s only a matter of time before the gas and electricity go.“The shelling has become more frequent and now there are enemy drones in town. Today the first drone flew in. Everyone knew after they [the Russians] took Avdiivka that this could be expected. It’s not sudden.Ms Korkh, a practical 39-year-old who has no children but a host of rescue...

The update by the Ministry of Defence added that the heavy losses would likely continue as Russia looked to make gains across the front lines in Ukraine. “The average daily Russian casualties (killed and wounded) in Ukraine, throughout May and June 2024, increased to conflict highs of 1,262 and 1,163 respectively,” the MoD wrote.

Mothers and wives of mobilized men in Russia have called Vladimir Putin a liar and launched a campaign to get their sons and husbands back from the front line in Ukraine. A group calling itself The Way Home has built support in 29 cities across Russia since it was established three months ago and has now published a manifesto, accusing the Kremlin of betrayal.

The Russians are losing their war on Ukraine. They just don’t know it yet.Many armchair generals ignore that fact. Putin is stronger than ever, they say. Even if his invasion failed to conquer Ukraine, the crushing burden of war cannot be sustained indefinitely by its defenders, we are told. And even if they do hold out, the Western democracies are already tiring of their role in providing military and financial lifelines to Kyiv while sanctioning Russia.Or so the “realists” say – though such arguments are often indistinguishable from appeasement or defeatism.The Western media has been filled with stories quoting unnamed...

Ukraine has recaptured its first village in Luhansk, a region that Russian forces took five months to bomb into submission and conquer. Belogorovka is the latest prize for Ukraine’s continuing counter-offensive pushing Russia away from the second city of Kharkiv. The village lies only a dozen or so miles from the towns of Lysychansk and Severdonestsk, key regional economic centres in the wider Donbas region that the Kremlin has promised to defend at all costs. The village also lies 45 miles east of the Oskil River, where Russian forces fled after a Ukrainian offensive around Kharkiv recaptured an area the...

A Ukrainian counter-offensive pushed Russian forces 25 miles east of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, US officials said on Monday night. They also said Russian gains in Donbas had been "minimal at best" and "quite frankly anaemic", and Vladimir Putin's troops appeared to be displaying a risk aversion to casualties.

In response to the U.S. Senate recognizing the Armenian Genocide, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to close two military bases (one American and one NATO) on its soil. This led U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper to openly question Turkey’s commitment to NATO. Two days later, The Telegraph broke a story that Hamas uses Turkey’s territory to plot attacks on Israel, which included plans to assassinate the then-mayor of Jerusalem and the chief of police, as well as a well-known advocate of Jews’ rights to pray on the Temple Mount. These two developments are part of a larger pattern...

Mainstream media outlets in Great Britain and the US were running news Sunday of a stunning petition that shows 2 million people want a new Brexit vote. Over “two million” signed the referendum in less than 24 hours! The BBC, The Mirror, France 24, The Telegraph, Manchester Evening News, The Guardian… all reported on the bogus petition. But they got punked. The poll was manufactured by 4Chan and Anonymous hackers who loaded up the signatures with fake names from The Vatican, Ghana, North Korea and elsewhere.

Many publications are falsely claiming Trump is totally ignorant and blank on whether Britain should leave the EU or not ("Brexit"). The logic is that Trump saying "huh"? to a single word verbal question (that might not have been enunciated well or heard clearly with Trump's 69 year old hearing) is proof of ignorance on the subject, showing a lack of foreign policy concern and awareness. Yet a 10 second google search reveals that Trump has commented on "Brexit" several times in the recent past. It seems a 10 second net search is too high of a journalism standard when...

The insider-account of the damaging divisions between the White House and the State Department comes as diplomats around the world wait to see if John Kerry, the new US secretary of state, can persuade Mr Obama to greater engagement on Syria, Egypt and the wider Middle East. Vali Nasr, a university professor who was seconded in 2009 to work with Richard Holbrooke, Mr Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, records his profound disillusion at how a "Berlin Wall" of domestic-focused advisers was erected to protect Mr Obama. "The president had a truly disturbing habit of funnelling major foreign policy...

Since so few readers of The Telegraph have a vote in Tuesday's presidential election, it might seem impertinent or redundant for this newspaper to express a preference in the knife-edge contest between George W Bush and John Kerry. But the economic, military and diplomatic power of the United States is so great - and its links with this country so intimate - that it is important to ask which of the candidates would govern America in a way which better served the British national interest. Last year, Britain's exports to the US were worth more than £29 billion; American firms...

JERUSALEM POST OWNERS RESIGN; FACE CORRUPTION CHARGES Post To Be Sold, Management Reshuffled Jerusalem Post Publisher Tom Rose, Editor Bret Stephens To Be Replaced By SETH SUTEL, AP Business Writer New York-----November 17........ Under heavy pressure from investors, Conrad Black will step down as chief executive of Hollinger International Inc., publisher of the Jerusalem Post and Chicago Sun-Times, and the company may be sold after an internal investigation found that fees had been improperly paid to Black and other senior executives. Several other executives are also leaving Hollinger as part of a management shakeup the company announced early Monday. David...

UK Newspaper Says Documents Link Bin Laden to IraqSat April 26, 2003 05:13 PM ETLONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper said it had discovered documents showing Iraqi intelligence hosted an envoy from Osama bin Laden in 1998 and sought to meet the alleged September 11 mastermind in person. The finding, if verified, would appear to support Washington's assertion of links between ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and bin Laden, one of the justifications for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The paper said the documents, which its correspondent found in the wrecked headquarters of the Iraqi Mukhabarat intelligence service, showed...