Free Republic

To the casual observer, Saudi Arabia might seem like an emboldened nation that is asserting itself. They’ve been challenging Iran, fighting rebels in Yemen, threatening to invade Syria, and if some rumors are to be believed, they are currently trying to attain nuclear missiles from Pakistan. However, these aren’t the actions of a stable nation that is asserting its dominance in the region. These are the flailing death throes of a nation that is struggling to hang on. Ever since global oil prices started to plummet, Saudi Arabia just hasn’t been the same. That’s no surprise. Since prices fell, other...

The end of Ali al-Naimi's more than two-decade tenure as Saudi Arabia's oil minister signals a new era for crude markets, analysts said on Saturday, and appeared to be a reaffirmation of Saudi policy to let oil set its own pricing. On Saturday, Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree that replaced al-Naimi with Khalid al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Aramco, as part of a broad reshuffling of the cabinet. The move came as the world's largest oil producer continues to grapple with the fallout from the global bear market in crude oil. Al Naimi was the most watched figure in the...

Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday replaced his veteran oil minister and restructured some big ministries in a major reshuffle apparently intended to support a wide-ranging economic reform programme unveiled last week. The most eye-catching move was the creation of a new Energy, Industry and Natural Resources Ministry under Khaled al-Falih, chairman of the state oil company Aramco. He replaces the 80-year-old oil minister Ali al-Naimi, in charge of energy policy at the world's biggest oil exporter since 1995. But major changes were also made to the economic leadership, with Majed al-Qusaibi named head of the new Commerce and Investment...

Russia honours veteran with medal, vodka By Jonathan Sher, The London Free Press Monday, April 25, 2016 10:05:18 EDT PM When your life is the world of ­diplomacy and your boss is Vladimir Putin, you’re not easily surprised. But the head of the Russian delegation in Toronto was taken aback this month when a 95-year-old Londoner, to be honoured for heroism during the Second World War, not only walked himself into the reception area, but passed up coffee and tea for a vodka. “He was quite surprised I walked in instead of being carried,” Londoner Bob Kennedy said. Kennedy was...

Sikh, Jewish and Christian representatives attend campaign launch following death of Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah Ahmadi Muslims in Scotland have launched an anti-extremism campaign following the death of the Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah, despite the failure of other prominent Muslims to attend the event. Representatives of the Glasgow Central Mosque and the Muslim Council of Scotland were invited to attend the launch alongside other faith groups, but the Guardian understands that both sent their apologies at the last minute. ..The Guardian has reported on how Ahmadis across the UK face shunning and discrimination by Muslims of Shia and Sunni faiths...

Some of Samia Sultan’s neighbours don’t greet her any more, and sometimes it’s hard for her to understand why. Sultan, a dentist, lives in Glasgow, in an area of the city that is – like most Muslim populations in the UK – majority Sunni. But Sultan isn’t Sunni: she is Ahmadi. And that is the source of the problem. “My neighbours were fine, but when they came to know I was Ahmadi, their attitude changed,” Sultan explains....“They would no longer reply to my greeting As-salāmu ‘alaykum [peace be upon you]” with Wa’alaykumu s-salām [and upon you peace].” When Asad Shah,...

The Chancellor says income tax could rise by 8% and billions would be cut from public services if the UK votes to leave the EU... says Treasury analysis has found that UK tax receipts would be £36bn-a-year lower after 15 years... the amount the officials calculate the exchequer would lose if Britain was forced to enter a trade deal similar to that which Canada has recently negotiated. The figure is the same as eight pence in the pound added to income tax. The 'Canadian model' is the scenario that many who want to leave say would be in Britain's best...

British Leader NIGEL FARAGE ENDORSES @realDonaldTRUMP! "A President Trump would be good news for Britain!"

•The 'peace-loving' victim was popular in his neighbourhood of Glasgow •Hours before his death, he posted message advertising inter-faith meeting •Police confirmed all those currently involved in investigation were Muslim 'A man has been arrested after a popular Muslim shopkeeper was stabbed to death by another Muslim in a religiously motivated attack just hours after he had posted a message wishing 'a very happy Easter to my beloved Christian nation'. Asad Shah, 40, was set upon with a knife and had his head stamped on in a shocking attack outside his Glasgow newsagents shop just after 9pm last night. A...

FOREST fires rage out of control despite water-bombing by helicopters. A sweltering heatwave grips the outback. Is this Australia? No, it’s Scotland enjoying its driest spring on record. The war might have come and gone, and we might be having an election next week, but all Scotland can talk about is the odd weather. Welcome to global warming.Or is it? I remain doggedly unconvinced. Certainly, the past decade has seen shorter winters in Scotland. But that only proves the climate is highly variable. Certainly, we are seeing a global bounce in temperature since the mini cold spasm that gripped the...

Scotland’s leader says she doesn’t want to use a possible British vote to leave the European Union as leverage to achieve independence. But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon concedes that Scots’ secessionist spirits would be inflamed if English voters forced them out of the EU. Sturgeon spoke Sunday on the second day of her Scottish National Party’s spring conference, which is focused on strengthening nationalist control of Scotland’s Parliament in a May 5 election. […] Sunday’s published poll data suggested that Scottish voters appear much more enthusiastic than their English neighbors about staying inside the 28-nation bloc, with 50 percent planning...

A metal detecting survey on the site of the Battle of Killiecrankie -- part of the Scottish Government's work to dual the A9 -- has unearthed dozens of items linked to the famous 1689 skirmish. The artefacts include a copper alloy pendant, a harness boss, two buckles, part of the support for a sword belt, horse shoes, buttons, and musket munitions... The battle of Killiecrankie took place on the 27 July 1689 between a Jacobite army under the command of John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount of Dundee 'Bonnie Dundee' -- and a Government army commanded by General Hugh Mackay....

President Barack Obama has announced in a rare statement that he will not follow newly passed measures aimed at boosting the Israeli economy and strengthening ties between the United States and the Jewish state, according to a statement issued by the president. Obama stated that while he would sign the new trade resolution, portions of which focus on combatting economic boycotts of Israel, he would not enforce certain pro-Israel provisions that order the United States to stop partnering with countries that support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS, which aims to isolate Israel. The president’s rejection of these...

David Cameron has boasted of his efforts to help sell “brilliant things” such as Eurofighter Typhoons to Saudi Arabia on the day the European parliament voted for an arms embargo on the country over its bombardment of Yemen. The prime minister talked of the UK government’s role in selling equipment made by defence company BAE Systems to Saudi Arabia, Oman and other countries as he visited the firm’s factory in Preston. At almost the same time, the European parliament voted in favour of an EU-wide ban on arms being sold to Saudi Arabia in protest at its heavy aerial bombing...

According to Iranian ambassador to Beirut, every family of a martyr will receive $7,000, while a family whose home was demolished by the IDF will receive $30,000. Speaking at a press conference in Beirut on Wednesday, Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Fathali, said: "Continuing Iran's support for the oppressed Palestinian people, Iran announces the provision of financial aid to families of Palestinian martyrs who were killed in the "Jerusalem intifada." Fathali called on the Arab Muslim nation to unite around the central Palestinian issue and said that "the martyrs' blood will release the entire Palestine, from the river to the...

THE Scottish winner of a national transgender beauty pageant has had her title stripped from her as she is “not transgender enough”. Jai Dara Latto, from Walkerburn, Peeblesshire, was named Miss Transgender UK in a ceremony in London last September. But Rachael Bailey, who runs the pageant, has now removed Jai’s title and is set to crown another beauty queen, Daisy Bell, the winner after seeing video footage she claims proves Ms Latto is not living as a woman full-time. The video, which was taken as part of a documentary about the pageant to be screened online by BBC3 next...

The revelation that Nigel Farage and George Galloway are to work together on the European Union referendum has been mercilessly mocked, with the unlikely pact described as an "unholy alliance". The Ukip and Respect party leaders appeared together at a rally for the Grassroots Out campaign on Friday, launching the campaign to persuade voters to end Britain's membership of the EU. Yet instead of being welcomed, Galloway's appearance prompted a mass walkout at the event, and the party leaders' partnership is now the subject of intense scrutiny - and mockery.

A brutal ISIS torturer wasn't the only jihadist terrorist who traveled with former British MP George Galloway to Gaza, it has been revealed. According to a recent report, Alexander Kotey left the UK on Galloway's "Viva Palestina" convoy to Gaza in 2009, and from there eventually made his way to Syria to join the Islamic State terror group. [...] As many as eight Muslim extremists who would later be convicted of or involved in terrorist activities joined the convoy, according to The Times. Among them were Amin Addala and Reza Afsharzadegan, both known associates of Emwazi from west London; and...

This Monday is the federal holiday Washington's Birthday, better known as Presidents Day, celebrated on the third Monday of February. If you want to know the actual birth date of George Washington, you will find two dates: Feb. 22, 1732, and Feb. 11, 1731. Both dates are correct. What accounts for the discrepancy? When Washington was born, Britain and its colonies were using the Julian calendar. Developed in first century B.C. under Julius Caesar, it had three too many leap days per 400-year period. The Catholic Church corrected the error in the 16th century by introducing a modified calendar (the...

Controversial anti-Israel politician and London Mayoral candidate George Galloway has been accused of "fascism," after refusing a man entry to his events because he is pro-Israel. Jewish activist Ben Gross of the Israel Advocacy Movement had attempted to enter a public talk by Galloway last week, but was rejected and physically blocked from entering. If Gross was under any doubt as to why he was turned away, Galloway himself quickly made it clear to his audience that it was his pro-Israel sympathies which made him a persona non grata. ...