Free Republic

The modern international order rests on a foundational promise: states must resolve disputes peacefully, and force may be used only as a last resort and only within the bounds of law. The US helped build this system after World War II, embedding these principles in the UN Charter and in its own Constitution. Yet the US military operations in Venezuela in January 2026 and in Iran on February 28, 2026 represent a sharp break from these commitments. Both actions were undertaken without United Nations authorization and without congressional approval, raising profound questions about legality, constitutional governance, and the erosion of...

Spain says the United States is not using – and will not be using – joint military bases on its territory for operations against Iran, a mission condemned by Madrid. “Based on all the information I have, the bases are not being used for this military operation,” Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish public television on Monday. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has condemned US and Israeli strikes on Iran that began on Saturday as an “unjustified” and “dangerous military intervention” outside the realm of international law, in another break from US policy. “The Spanish government will not authorise the...

In the wake of Iranian Supreme Leader Aylatollah Khamenei coming down with a killer headache after getting a U.S. warhead on his forehead, on Saturday, The Washington Post published one of their infamous glowing remembrances of Islamic terrorists. The paper fondly remembered the brutal Islamic dictator as a “avuncular figure” with an “easy smile” and love for “Persian poetry.” Readers might remember when The Post fluffed up the former leader of ISIS as an “austere religious scholar”; well, they're back at it again with Khamenei in their obituary titled: “Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is dead at 86.” The...

Forbes Breaking News. Feb 28, 2026. Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon speaks at a UN Security Council meeting following the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSnwleH5DzE >> Mr. President, for 47 years, the Islamic regime in Iran has led crowds in chanting Marjbar Israel Marjbar America. do you want to translate these chants? Your leaders have been chanting it for years in public events in your parliament. Marjbar Israel Marjbar America. They mean death to Israel, death to America. Israeli and American flags were painted on roads so they could be trampled. Our flags were burned in public squares. LThis is...

The United Nations chief condemned the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran on Saturday and called for an immediate return to negotiations “to pull the region, and our world, back from the brink.” Secretary-General António Guterres told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that everything must be done to prevent further escalation. “The alternative,” he warned, “is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.” Guterres said the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes violated international law, including the U.N. Charter. He also condemned Iran’s retaliatory attacks for violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan,...

French President Emmanuel Macron called President Trump’s attack on Iran “dangerous” and urged both sides to go back to the negotiation table. “The ongoing escalation is dangerous for all,” he said in a statement posted on social media. “It must stop. The Iranian regime must understand that it now has no other option but to engage in good faith in negotiations to end its nuclear and ballistic programs, as well as its regional destabilization activities. This is absolutely necessary for the security of all in the Middle East.” He also called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday condemned Israel’s recent actions in the occupied West Bank of converting the territory’s areas into “state property”, highlighting that the country’s “expansionist mindset” held no regard for international law. The minister made the statement while addressing a meeting of the executive committee of the Organisation of Islamic Council (OIC) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The meeting was taking place against the backdrop of the Israeli government approving a proposal to register large areas of the occupied West Bank as “state property” for the first time since the occupation of the territory...

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said on Monday it was following up with “high interest and concern” on the maritime coordinates and map recently submitted by Iraq to the United Nations. The ministry said in a statement that the coordinates and map included infringement on areas adjacent to the Saudi-Kuwaiti divided zone, where both countries share natural resources in the area according to previous agreements between them. For more Saudi news, visit our dedicated page. The ministry added that the Kingdom rejects “claims” that any other side has the right to the divided submerged area between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It...

The Vatican will not join President Donald Trump’s newly formed Board of Peace, its top diplomatic official said Tuesday, signaling reluctance from the Holy See to take part in the post-war initiative. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Holy See "will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States," the Vatican’s official news outlet reported. The Board of Peace, which was chartered in January and includes nearly 20 countries, is tasked with managing recovery efforts in the Gaza Strip after the Israel-Hamas war. While responding...

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot tells lawmaker the French government demands UN Rapporteur's resignation after her latest hateful rant against Israel. “France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Ms. Francesca Albanese, which are directed not at the Israeli government, whose policies may be criticized, but at Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable," Barrot said. He stated that Albanese's remarks “target not the Israeli government, whose policies can be criticized, but Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable," and that they "add to a long list of...

The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, with the support of international labor unions, intends to sue Israel for compensation on behalf of Palestinian Authority Arab workers who lost their jobs in Israel since October 7, 2023, when Hamas and civilian Arabs infiltrated Israel en mass and brutally tortured, massacred, and dismembered Israeli men, women, children, and infants. The petition to the International Labour Organization (ILO) focuses on the right to wages and the protection of workers' social rights in accordance with binding international conventions and agreements. Shaher Saad, Secretary-General of the Palestinian Workers Union, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the...

Deep in mid-winter blues and suffering through never-ending images of shrieking Karens, their soy-boys and the judges and elected officials obstructing the deportation of rapists, fraudsters, and run-of-the-mill 75 IQ illegals, I thought we could use a pick-me-up, a bit of cheerful news. Well, I've got it. The UN is facing bankruptcy. UN operations may cease by the end of February, and the last flabby, underworked UN bureaucrat could receive a final check, assuming it doesn't bounce, in July.The United Nations said on Friday that it was facing imminent financial collapse and would run out of money by July if...

As the Trump administration slashes funding and exits multiple international bodies over criticism that the U.N. has failed to promote U.S. interests, the United Nations is warning it could face a cash crisis by July.In a Jan. 28 letter from U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to ambassadors, he cited record unpaid dues and rigid budget rules that have left the organization exposed.Guterres said the U.N. is trapped in a "Kafkaesque cycle" in which rigid budget rules force it to return "unspent" funds even when those contributions were never paid. He said outstanding dues reached a record $1.568 billion at the end...

Bounties as high as $100,000 are being offered to contract killers for the murder of dozens of Israeli researchers, including some in the US, on the website of a hateful anti-Zionist group. “The Punishment for Justice Movement” website offers between $50,000 for murdering one of the Jewish academics listed — and twice that amount for the killing of “special targets” — claiming the high-achieving researchers are complicit in child murder. Home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and social media accounts were listed for at least 40 academics, according to The Jerusalem Post. The website offered a $2,000 USD as reward...

Ireland has joined 10 other European countries calling for Israel to halt demolitions of the headquarters belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in east Jerusalem by Israeli authorities. Earlier this month, Israeli bulldozers began demolishing the compound, having effectively banned the organization from operating in the country in January 2026. The joint letter was signed by Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee and the foreign ministers of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the UK. It described the demolition as an unprecedented act which marked the “latest unacceptable move” to undermine a UN...

GENEVA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The U.N. chief has told states that the organisation is at risk of "imminent financial collapse", citing unpaid fees and a budget rule that forces the global body to return unspent money, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Friday. "The crisis is deepening, threatening programme delivery and risking financial collapse. And the situation will deteriorate further in the near future." The U.N. is facing a cash crisis as the world body's largest contributor - the United States - has slashed voluntary funding to U.N. agencies and refused to make mandatory payments to the...

Xi Jinping has offered Europe new trade partnerships and promised to uphold the “values” of the United Nations. The move is an apparent attempt to capitalise on the continent’s growing rift with the United States. On Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer became the latest leader to travel to Beijing after Mark Carney and Petteri Orpo, the prime ministers of Canada and Finland. In a meeting with Mr Orpo on Tuesday, the Chinese president said China and Europe were “partners, not adversaries” and invited Finnish companies to “swim in the vast ocean of the Chinese market”. He also appeared to snub Donald...

The United States officially left the World Health Organization on Thursday after a year of warnings that doing so would hurt public health in the U.S. and globally, saying its decision reflected failures in the U.N. health agency’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump gave notice that the U.S. would quit the organization on the first day of his presidency in 2025, via an executive order. According to a press release from the U.S. Health and State Departments, the U.S. will only work with the WHO in a limited fashion in order to effectuate the withdrawal. […] The...

US ambassadors have taken a chainsaw to the United Nations budget as part of President Trump’s mandate to have the world organization “get back to basics.” US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz and Management and Reform Ambassador Jeffrey Bartos told The Post they helped reduce the entire UN budget by $570 million — and America’s portion of that payment to the international governing body by around $126 million. “The UN has agreed to the first real budget cuts – actual real cuts for the first time in modern history, pretty much since the founding of the organization,” Waltz recently...

Do as you are told, obey your “legal obligation” and keep sending U.S. taxpayer dollars. That was the message delivered Thursday to the Trump administration from U.N. headquarters in Manhattan, New York City, in the hours after the White House announced it is withdrawing billions in financial support from 66 organizations affiliated with the globalist entity. Secretary-General António Guterres, a former Portuguese Socialist Party leader and prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, said he regretted President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the U.N.-related agencies, but no avenue exists for it to stop paying its dues. […] “As...