Free Republic

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Monday that President Joe Biden had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to oppose Israeli plans to attack Hamas in the city of Rafah. Sullivan added that the president had asked Netanyahu an “interagency” team of military, defense, and humanitarian officials by “the beginning of next week” to meet with U.S. officials in Washington and negotiate over a Rafah operation. He said that the Biden Administration might approve limited, targeted strikes in Rafah, but would refuse a broader Israeli invasion of the town, saying that such an...

On Tuesday’s “CNN NewsNight,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) accused the Biden administration of inaccurately placing the blame for the lack of a six-week ceasefire solely on Hamas because “Hamas showed up to Egypt, it’s my understanding, for the negotiations. It was Israel that refused to send negotiators” to the table and “you have to remember that a ceasefire is not something that happens magically. It is a process that is negotiated by different parties that have interests.” Host Abby Phillip asked, “So, we just had one of your Democratic colleagues, Rep. Moskowitz (D-FL), on the show last night. He suggested...

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and other pro-establishment Republican senators want former President Donald Trump to butt out of their back-room negotiations with pro-migration Democrats. “It’s not helpful,” Thune, who is the top deputy to Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), told CNN. “There are a number of pieces in there that are good, conservative border policies that we’ve been trying to get done for years,” he told reporters. “There are some folks without question that don’t want to get any solution to a problem because they think that might help the other side,” retiring Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told CNN....

After hundreds of thousands of lives lost and hundreds of billions of dollars spent, American officials have reportedly begun quietly pressuring Ukraine to open peace talks with Russia amid growing concerns about dwindling manpower. Despite Moscow’s overwhelming military advantage over Kyiv in terms of manpower being apparent from the outset of the war — with Russia having three times the population to draw on than Ukraine — officials in the United States are apparently finally realising the impossibility of the former Soviet state defeating Putin’s forces.

Ukraine may be ready to negotiate Crimea once its forces launch a counter-offensive and reach the border of the Russian-occupied peninsula, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky said. Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of the president’s office, said Kyiv could soon be “ready” to enter talks, in an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday. “If we will succeed in achieving our strategic goals on the battlefield and when we will be on the administrative border with Crimea, we are ready to open [a] diplomatic page to discuss this issue,” Sybiha said, referencing Kyiv’s highly anticipated counterattack to regain territory in the...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday said it is “valuable” for the U.S. to keep engaging in talks with Russia amid heightened tensions between the two countries and nuclear saber-rattling from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Schiff, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS it is important for intelligence heads from both nations to maintain an open line of dialogue with the war in Ukraine raging.

According to Polishchuk, Moscow is ready to accept intermediary services at peace talks on the terms that “Kyiv has already rejected.”Read also: Negotiations have no chance of ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, says Germany“Many countries are currently offering their mediation in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” Polishchuk said.“There is no shortage of intermediary services, and we’re not refusing them.”

President Joe Biden tried to send a message of strength as he reacted to remarks from Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. “America and its allies are not going to be intimidated by Putin and his reckless words and threats,” Biden said, as he glanced at his notecard. “He’s not going to scare us or intimidate us.” The president spoke about Putin at the White House after delivering remarks on the ongoing devastation following Hurricane Ian in Florida.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has kept the upper chamber’s negotiations on gun reform narrowly focused by tasking one of his top deputies, conservative Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), to take the Republican lead in the talks. Cornyn’s participation in the negotiations opened the door for another reliable Trump ally, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), to play a greater role in the negotiations. This has balanced the influence of Republican negotiators who are seen as more moderate and more likely to endorse reforms that could wind up roiling the pro-gun rights GOP base.

President Joe Biden addressed the shooting at Uvalde, Texas, Robb Elementary School, talking again about deer in Kevlar vests and suggesting an “assault weapons” ban. Biden began his comments with a soft tone, talking about loss, then he erupted with, “As a nation, we have to ask when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby. When in God’s name are we going to do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?”

William Barr, who served as U.S. attorney general under then-President Donald Trump, is in talks to cooperate with the Congressional committee investigating the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a Thursday report. Axios reports: Barr is likely to cooperate with the committee, according to a source familiar with his thinking. Tim Mulvey, a spokesman for the Jan. 6 committee, declined to comment. […] No firm decision has been made by the committee on whether to invite Barr to appear in the public hearings that begin in June. Barr has said Trump became angry at him for dismissing...

Russia and Ukraine could hold a new round of peace talks as soon as Monday, according to Ukrainian authorities — with US officials crediting the crippling economic sanctions against the Kremlin for the move. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Sunday that both parties are working with mediators from Israel and Turkey to sort out potential topics of discussion — including a cease-fire and a withdrawal of Russian troops — and where and when the talks would be held.

In a hopeful sign of de-escalation, Ukrainian officials said they will meet Russian counterparts at the Belarus border, shortly after Vladimir Putin said he is putting Russia’s nuclear forces on higher alert. In a Facebook post, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukraine has agreed to talks with Russia on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. “We have agreed that the Ukrainian delegation will meet with Russian without prior conditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, in the area of the Pripyat River,” Zelenskiy said. A delegation has already left Kyiv, Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of Zelenskiy’s party, said in televised comments. The Ukraine foreign minister...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged to remain in the capital even as Russian troops fought to enter Kyiv, Zelensky said, "The enemy identifies me as the number one target." "They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state," Zelensky told Ukrainians in a video during early hours of Friday. His family was the No. 2 target, he said, but also remained in Ukraine. "My family is not traitors, but citizens of Ukraine. But I have no right to say where they are now." Zelensky said he was staying "with everyone who is needed for the work of...

Russia upped the ante Monday in its dangerous standoff with Ukraine, openly warning of military action if President Biden and America’s NATO allies ignore a list of demands Moscow announced late last week — a far-reaching list that some key U.S. lawmakers have dubbed a “pretext to war.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said his country is fully prepared to respond through “military-technical means” if Western powers fail to address those demands. He said NATO must not expand to include Ukraine or Georgia and the U.S. must not base additional military assets in former Soviet republics in Central Asia....

The Lower Manhattan Community School racially segregated its students this week to grapple with the question, “How do our racial identities influence our experiences?” according to the New York Post. “On November 23rd and 24th, 7th and 8th graders will explore the question ‘How do our racial identities influence our experiences?’ in affinity groups,” Principal Shanna Douglas wrote in an email sent to parents. “An affinity group is a group formed around a shared interest.”

Talks of longtime Democrat representative and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) retiring are starting to grow as other prominent committee chairman announce retirement and the party is losing momentum to keep their House majority in the midterms

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will head to Washington, DC, later this month and has scheduled in talks with President Joe Biden. The Times reports Johnson will be traveling to the United States to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York, set down for Sept. 21. The trip will last four days, during which bilateral talks are slated to be held with Biden.

President Biden spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday, where they discussed competing national interests — but didn’t get around to discussing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to a readout from the White House. The US administration said the leaders of the world’s two preeminent global powers “had a broad, strategic discussion in which they discussed areas where our interests converge, and areas where our interests, values, and perspectives diverge. “They agreed to engage on both sets of issues openly and straightforwardly,” the White House statement went on. The readout later added that Biden “underscored the United States’ enduring interest...

Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska, recorded a temperature as low as -18 degrees Celsius (nearly zero degrees Fahrenheit) in the early morning. A two-day high-level talk between the United States and China has just ended in this frigid place. The high pitch of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “wolf warriors” howl and the weak U.S. response, in contrast, are really worrying.In short, the U.S. side fell into four traps set ingeniously by the CCP during the talks.First, the holding of high-level talks between the United States and China is itself a CCP trap.After Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Anthony...