Free Republic

Hamas has told negotiators it does not have 40 Israeli hostages that it can release as part of a temporary cease-fire deal with Israel, a source familiar with the talks confirmed to The Hill. The admission raises questions over how many of the remaining hostages kidnapped Oct. 7 are alive and who is holding them. Israel says 129 hostages out of more than 240 abducted that day — mostly Israelis and dual nationals — have yet to be released. The Biden administration is pushing a plan to have Israel and Hamas agree to a six to eight week cease-fire that...

Greece would “of course” be interested in purchasing Canada’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) if the resource could be made available to the Mediterranean country, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says. Mitsotakis sat down with CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in Montreal for an exclusive interview airing Sunday, during the prime minister’s visit to Canada over the weekend. Canada has eight LNG projects “in various stages of development,” according to Natural Resources Canada. The first export facility is slated to begin operations next year with shipments destined for some Asian countries. But whether Canada can and should plan to also...

Amos Miller, an Amish farmer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, will be allowed to sell his raw milk products out-of-state following a ruling this week by Lancaster County Judge Thomas Sponaugle. Attorney and podcast host Robert Barnes, who represents Miller in the case, labeled the decision a “major win” for the farmer. “Court agreed to modify injunction so that it only applies within the state of Pennsylvania removing the ban on sales to customers outside state,” he wrote, thanking Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for their support. ...........

An investigation has revealed suspicious communications devices inside Chinese-made cargo cranes used widely at US ports, supporting fears that the equipment could be part of an espionage plot. Cranes made by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC), a state-owned Chinese company, in some cases carry cellular modems, according to a congressional investigation reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The modems offer a potential backdoor for remote access, and do not appear to support the normal operations of the equipment, the investigation found. The discovery of the modems, which had not been previously disclosed, supports growing fears in US intelligence...

A congressional investigation has discovered strange communication equipment on Chinese-built cargo cranes at U.S seaports, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Rather than building them domestically at potentially higher costs, the U.S. relies heavily on Chinese-built cargo cranes that are relatively cheap to produce and equip at seaports across the country. The congressional probe discovered that several of these cranes, built by Chinese mega-manufacturer ZMPC, contain communications devices that were not requested or don’t appear to support standard operations, heightening existing espionage concerns, according to the WSJ. U.S. intelligence has warned that Chinese cranes – equipped with an array...

Two weeks ago, on February 16, in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Justice Arthur Engoron of the New York State Supreme Court issued his decision ordering Donald Trump to pay some $355 million of “disgorgement” penalties. The stated basis for imposing these extraordinary penalties was Trump’s supposed “fraud” of exaggerating the value of some of his properties on financial statements submitted to a bank. No one had been damaged by Trump’s conduct, and the bank in question had neither complained nor sought any relief; however, the Attorney General asserted, and the judge agreed, that a...

Log onto Facebook. Before you know it, you’ll see ads from Temu or Wish, pitching cheap products. Or open your old email account, the one that you’ve had for years, so it gets the most spam. Every other message is an offer from some unknown store, selling the sort of thing in which a person like you just might be interested. Or log onto Amazon and look for something, anything at all. Twenty percent of the hits, maybe more, will be “sponsored” items, often from a brand you’ve never heard of. Of course, you can shut down the internet, close...

The numbers: Orders for durable or long-lasting goods sank 6.1% in January, but the decline was exaggerated by a brief lull in orders for Boeing passenger planes. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 5% decline. New orders fell by a mild 0.3% last month if planes and cars are stripped out. Orders minus transportation give a more accurate view of how well businesses are performing.

On Jan. 26, Joe Biden took an aggressive step forward in his war on American energy by halting the permitting of new liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals. This action has massive global implications, as TPPF’s Mark Mills laid out when the decision was publicly announced. It also has the added benefit .. of attacking primarily Texas and Louisiana, red states that account for the bulk of U.S. LNG exports. This decision comes on the heels of Texas taking steps to secure its border with Mexico, putting the state directly at odds with the administration—once again. But the politically motivated...

Iran was able to transport $2.8 billion in oil to customers in 2023 using insurance from a US-based company, despite sanctions imposed on Iranian oil sales by the US Treasury, an investigation published by The New York Times (NYT) on Friday has found. The oil was transported aboard 27 tankers, using liability insurance obtained by the New York-based American Club. Tankers are typically required to have liability insurance to enter international ports, meaning the US Treasury could have blocked the sale of this oil by demanding the American Club revoke insurance for the tankers.NYT says the 27 tankers were able...

On January 26, President Joe Biden announced a “pause” on federal approval for new liquefied natural gas (LNG)–export terminals. While the Department of Energy’s indefinite suspension and order for new environmental analyses may keep the president’s reelection hopes above water, it will harm America’s long-term economic and geopolitical interests. Further, the policy may not even serve its ostensible purpose of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Ten months from Election Day, the president’s campaign likely thinks that renewed attention on his climate agenda will rouse support among progressive Democrats, who have drifted from Biden in recent months. By rallying his political coalition, however,...

President Joe Biden announced a temporary pause on exports of liquefied natural gas to countries without free trade agreements Friday, a move that experts warn will drive up the price of energy and empower Russian President Vladimir Putin. “President Biden has been clear that climate change is the existential threat of our time—and we must act with the urgency it demands to protect the future for generations to come,” the White House said in a news release on the move. The administration is temporarily pausing pending decisions on LNG exports until the Department of Energy can “update the underlying analyses...

In an election year, candidates from both sides will generally declare that we need more domestic manufacturing, and they promise to make it happen. Different sides will propose different ways to accomplish it. Republicans will call for lower tax rates and lighter regulations; Democrats will call for open borders and higher punitive tariffs. Each side hates the other’s methods; nothing gets done. Does this really matter? There are economists, investment advisors, even politicians out there, who will say it doesn’t matter. They will say we need business, of course; but as long as there are transactions happening, that’s economic growth....

Iran is “very directly involved” in ship attacks that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have carried out during Israel’s war against Hamas, the U.S. Navy’s top Mideast commander told The Associated Press on Monday. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the Navy‘s 5th Fleet, stopped short of saying Tehran directed individual attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. However, Cooper acknowledged that attacks associated with Iran have expanded from previously threatening just the Persian Gulf and its Strait of Hormuz into waters across the wider Middle East.

The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions against 19 tankers that transported Russian oil under the flags of Liberia and Panama. SOURCE: US Department of Treasury DETAILS: It is noted that sanctions are imposed in connection with the violation of the restriction on oil prices. 18 tankers fly the flag of Liberia, and one sails under the flag of Panama. Two companies own the tankers: Hennesea Holdings Limited (UAE) and Cielo Marine Ltd (Hong Kong). It is known that the shipping firm Hennesea Holdings Limited (Hennesea), which is headquartered in the United...

United States Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark made a veiled attack against former President Donald Trump’s economic nationalist agenda, declaring that tariffs and reshoring America’s manufacturing base threaten the global economy.During Clark’s annual speech to big business late last week, the Chamber executive said Americans must embrace globalization and free trade rather than seek to reshore American jobs that have been lost to China and other foreign countries over the last three decades.Alone, the U.S. trade deficit with China since 2001 has eliminated nearly four million American jobs. Almost three million of these lost jobs, or about 75 percent,...

There is a touch of irony that the Biden administration has been driven to undertake air strikes against Yemen’s Houthi “regime” to prevent the collapse of global trade and higher inflation. It is yet another case of this White House being caught in a trap of its own creation. The current crisis in the Red Sea, as well as the chaos it is causing within the Democratic party, are merely the latest example of this phenomenon, one in which Biden and his team are being punished for their “original sin” – abandoning the successful policy not just of Donald Trump,...

Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said Monday night: “The Yemeni armed forces consider all American and British ships and warships participating in the aggression against our country as hostile targets”. The missile came from near Hodeidah, a Red Sea port city long held by the Houthis, the US said. ..

In mid-December, almost as soon as our currently ailing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced his soaringly named international coalition of high seas passage defenders…BREAKING:⚡ 🇺🇸🇮🇱 U.S. Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin will announce a multinational campaign codenamed 'Operation Prosperity Guardian' during his visit to the Middle East next weekAccording to U.S. Officials, the joint mission will be carried out by a multinational task force consisting of several allied countries, to counter the Houthi threat and protect vital shipping lanes in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab & the Gulf of Aden.pic.twitter.com/UoCi83razX— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) December 16, 2023…it started to unravel...

he commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed on Saturday to reach “the enemy” far and near as tensions soar on key shipping routes where Tehran’s allies have been attacking vessels. “Today, we are facing an all-out battle with the enemy,” said Guards commander Hossein Salami at a ceremony in the southern Gulf port city of Bandar Abbas, where the Guards’ navy unveiled a new ship named “Abu Mahdi” and 100 missile launchers.