Free Republic

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” CNN Senior National Security Correspondent Alex Marquardt reported that the White House is “panicking” over the prospect that OPEC will cut oil production and is engaging in a “furious, last-ditch, wide-scale effort” to lobby against a production cut.

The Biden administration is preparing to step up the kind of weaponry it is offering Ukraine by sending advanced, long-range rocket systems that are now the top request from Ukrainian officials, multiple officials say. The administration is leaning toward sending the systems as part of a larger package of military and security assistance to Ukraine, which could be announced as soon as next week.

Washington (CNN)When the Biden administration announced a ban on dozens of Saudis from traveling to the US in response to intelligence that the kingdom's powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, it was rolling out a plan that had been spiked by the Trump administration and brought back to life once President Joe Biden took office. Dubbed the "Khashoggi Ban" by the State Department, the measure issued visa restrictions on 76 Saudis and their families. The plan had initially been drafted by the Trump administration, which shelved it over fears of alienating the...

A push by the US State Department to include the phrase "Wuhan virus" in a joint statement with other Group of Seven members following a meeting of foreign ministers on coronavirus on Wednesday was rejected, resulting in separate statements and division in the group. "What the State Department has suggested is a red line," a European diplomat said. "You cannot agree with this branding of this virus and trying to communicate this."...Although the World Health Organization officially has dubbed the illness Covid-19 or coronavirus, a 12-paragraph draft statement circulated by the US among the G7 ministers referred to it as...