Free Republic

Donald Trump's government has banned two Brits - including a campaign group leader with links to senior Labour figures - and a former EU commissioner from the United States for allegedly seeking to curb free speech among Americans online. The US State Department says it has sanctioned Imran Ahmed, leader of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Clare Melford, of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), for seeking to 'coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose'. Mr Ahmed, a Cambridge graduate who is based in Washington DC according to an online CV, faces deportation; Ms Melford will...

Denmark said Monday it will summon the US ambassador after President Donald Trump announced he had appointed a special envoy to Greenland, the Danish autonomous territory he has threatened to annex. In response, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said they stood "in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland". Denmark said Monday it would summon the US ambassador after President Donald Trump appointed a special envoy to Greenland who immediately vowed to make the Danish autonomous territory "a part of the US". Since returning to the White House in January,...

The gunman who killed two students at Brown University was found dead in a storage unit after murdering an MIT professor as their decades-old connection was revealed. The suspect - 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente - was revealed to be a Portuguese national who studied at the Ivy League school in Rhode Island more than 20 years ago. He had attended Brown to pursue a masters of science in physics from 2000 to 2001, before he took a leave of absence and ultimately withdrew from the school. It remains unclear why Neves Valente opened fire at the Rhode Island school, killing...

If Europe’s elites want war, they should pick up a rifle and fight. After the European Commission levied a several-hundred-million-dollar fine on Elon Musk and his social media platform X earlier this month, journalist Michael Shellenberger wrote a damning post in which he excoriated Europe’s rank censorship and state-sponsored propaganda. He accused the commission of engaging “in a deception campaign aimed at confusing” Europeans and Americans into thinking that European elites’ “goal” is anything other than “to censor the American people.” Shellenberger pointed out that Musk’s fine came while European governments are demanding backdoor access to all private text messages...

For those who understand the basics of attrition warfare, the outcome of the fight in Ukraine was obvious a long time ago. Russia's superior logistical position along with its grinding offensive tactics have worn down Ukraine's defenses and left the country with a desperate manpower shortage. The recent capture of the vital hub of Pokrovsk has now opened the door to an accelerating Russian advance. The Russian offensive is gaining significant ground from Pokrovsk to the north, all the way to Kupiansk. The strategic city of Siversk is now largely under control of Russia according to geo-location mapping. Myrnohrad, also...

Vladimir Solovyov threatens America

Russia launched its biggest aerial attack against Ukraine overnight, a Ukrainian official said Sunday, part of an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the 3-year-old war. Russia fired a total of 537 aerial weapons at Ukraine, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed. The onslaught was “the most massive airstrike” on the country since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, taking into account both drones and various types...

Revolutionary Guard commander Sardar Esmail Kowsari told local media in an interview closing the Strait of Hormuz "is under consideration, and Iran will make the best decision with determination." "Our hands are wide open when it comes to punishing the enemy, and the military response was only part of our overall response," added Kowsari, who is a member of parliament in addition to his military position. Iran’s short- and medium-range missiles would be capable of targeting oil infrastructure platforms, pipelines in the Strait, or even attacking commercial vessels, and surface-to-surface missiles could target tankers or ports along the Gulf. Airstrikes...

BERLIN (Reuters) -Europe is capable of sustaining Ukraine's resistance against Russia, even if the United States were to decide to completely halt its military support to Kyiv, the senior military official in charge of coordinating Germany's arms supplies told Reuters.Major General Christian Freuding said NATO's European members plus Canada had already exceeded the estimated $20 billion worth of U.S. military aid provided last year to Kyiv.They accounted for around 60% of the total costs borne by the Western allies, he said."The war against Ukraine is raging on our continent, it is also being waged against the European security order. If...

Dmitry Novikov, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, made the comments to Russian state news outlet TASS. "I think that Musk has a completely different game, [so] he will not need any political asylum, although if he did, Russia, of course, could provide it," Novikov said, in remarks translated from Russian. Musk and Trump, who had been political allies over desired cuts to federal spending, have publicly clashed recently with the feud escalating on June 5 in a series of exchanges across social media and in comments to reporters.

Last week at an event at the European Parliament, an MEP asked me a question that I hear often: “Does JD Vance hate Europe?” My guess is that he does not hate the Europe of tête de veau in a Rive Gauche brasserie in Paris, of Sunday mass at the Duomo in Milan, of Alpine lakes in Switzerland, or of paintings at the Alte Pinothek in Munich. What he hates is Brussels, or rather, “Brussels”—the symbol of official, bureaucratic Europe, and the dictatorship of managerial liberalism administered from there. He hates the Europe of decrees from the European Commission, of...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed a trilateral meeting between himself, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Russian President Vladimir Putin to break the deadlock on ending Moscow's invasion. Fighting continues between Russia and Ukraine, and Trump has expressed increasing frustration with the lack of progress towards peace, threatening to walk away from brokering the process entirely if he does not see a deal ahead. "We are ready to meet at the level of leaders. Both the American side knows this, and the Russian side knows this," Zelensky said on Tuesday, ahead of his visit to Germany on Wednesday. Zelensky said...

Parties opposed to the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) continue to block it from exercising its rights—all in the name of stopping “fascism.”Germany’s self-proclaimed democracy defenders are at it again: blocking a law-abiding party from exercising its rights—all in the name of protecting democracy. The Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), a pro-free market, anti-EU, anti-mass migration party, placed second in Germany’s recent parliamentary elections, earning nearly 21 percent of the vote to the top vote-getter’s, the Christian Democratic Union’s, 28 percent. The AfD placed well ahead of the once-dominant Social Democratic Party (16 percent) and the Greens (11 percent).By longstanding tradition, the...

Danwatch and Der Spiegel has gained access to hundreds of highly detailed blueprints ...

The Kremlin claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin survived a massive drone attack on his helicopter last week. On Tuesday Putin was visiting the Kursk region when his helicopter was 'virtually at the epicenter of repelling a large-scale attack by the enemy's drones,' said Yury Dashkin, commander of a Russian air defense division, according to the state news agency TASS. 'Therefore, we simultaneously conducted an air defense battle and ensured the safety of the presidential helicopter’s flight in the air,' Dashkin said. The Kursk region borders Ukraine, with Moscow claiming that it had driven Ukrainian forces out of the area...

SummaryRussian drone kills nine civilians in Ukraine Zelenskiy calls for more sanctions on Russia Drone attack comes hours after peace talks in Istanbul Kremlin says 'agreements' needed before Putin, Zelenskiy meet Macron accuses Putin of 'cynicism' KYIV, May 17 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Saturday for stronger sanctions on Moscow after a Russian drone killed nine bus passengers in northeastern Ukraine just hours after the two countries held their first peace talks in three years of war.The meeting of Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkey on Friday failed to broker a temporary ceasefire. It was the first...

European leaders stepped up pressure on Russia to accept an unconditional cease-fire in Ukraine, threatening to immediately impose a new round of punishing sanctions if the Kremlin did not change its stance by the end of Monday. “The clock is ticking — we still have 12 hours until the end of this day,” the German government spokesman, Stefan Kornelius, told a news conference. On Monday, the Kremlin spokesman brushed off the threat. “The language of ultimatums is unacceptable — you cannot talk to Russia like this,” the spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told Russian news agencies.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland headed to Kyiv on Saturday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a show of unity a day after Russia's Vladimir Putin hosted his allies in a Victory Day parade on Red Square. The summit will discuss a U.S. and European proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the Russian war in Ukraine that if refused by Moscow would see them jointly impose new sanctions, a French diplomatic source said, adding that the step had not yet been finalised. The visit by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German...

BREAKING: Ukraine considers shift from dollar to euro amid geopolitical realignments — Reuters

The European Commission has published a "roadmap" outlining its plans to end Europe's reliance on Russian energy in the coming years. Under the plans, imports of all Russian gas and liquefied natural gas to European Union member states will be banned by the end of 2027. "No more will we permit Russia to weaponise energy against us... No more will we indirectly help fill up the [Kremlin's] war chests," European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen said in a news conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday. In response to the plans, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday...