Free Republic

On Friday, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was welcomed to the White House as part of the first diplomatic summit of Joe Biden’s presidency — but Biden was not the one to welcome him to the United States. Instead, Suga was greeted by Vice President Kamala Harris. ... The strange, awkward greeting was met with alarm from Cutis Houck, the managing editor of NewsBusters, who tweeted that “If Vice President Pence welcomed and then showed the head of a major U.S. ally and global power around the White House and not President Trump, CNN and MSNBC would have melted down...

Kurt Smolek, a Diplomatic Security special agent with the State Department and Dayton Police Academy graduate, was found dead in the Potomac River on Wednesday and the cause is listed as undetermined pending an autopsy. We're hearing tonight that Smolek, 45, is a 1998 academy graduate and one of his assignments as a special agent was as a member of Condoleezza Rice's security team. According to DC Metro police, Smolek was last seen Monday, Aug. 28, in the 600 block of Water Street, Southwest, about 10 p.m. A missing persons bulletin described hims as white with graying brown hair, brown...

The unpredictable and increasingly dangerous North Korea celebrated the fourth of July by launching its own rocket into the air. But this was far from a firework sent to the sky to celebrate a country’s independence. The North Korean regime has successfully launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching Alaska but not the mainland. At least, not yet. North Korea is a growing threat to the U.S. as Trump and his generals ponder what to do. The latest weapons test caught American military officials off guard as it included a new type of missile fired from a...

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called for the withdrawal of U.S. military from a restive southern island, fearing an American troop presence could complicate offensives against Islamist militants notorious for beheading Westerners. Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over his televised tirade against the United States and President Barack Obama, said special forces now training Filipino troops were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counter-insurgency operations intensify. "These special forces, they have to go," Duterte said in a speech during an oath-taking ceremony for new officials. "I do not want a rift with America....

A YouTube video that went viral — showing a Ferrari LaFerrari and Porsche 911 GT3 tearing through residential streets of Beverly Hills; flying though stop signs while pedestrians waited to cross, narrowly avoiding other motorists — has caused outrage, with neighbors pleading with police to take action before someone gets hurt. According to NBC4, the owner of said vehicles is claiming “diplomatic immunity,” telling a video journalist who asked for comment, “I could have you killed and get away with it.” The name of the car’s owner has not been released, but he is rumored to be part of the...

[Headline only]

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night attempted to respond to the outpouring of criticism for his unilateral decision the night before, in which he sealed a ceasefire deal with the terrorist group Hamas. "With the establishment of the ceasefire I can say that this is a great military and diplomatic achievement," claimed Netanyahu, accompanied by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. Netanyahu stated "Hamas has been hit critically and didn't receive any of the demands it set." Palestinian Authority (PA) officials revealed that in the deal Gaza received an immediate ease of the blockade...

"President Barack Obama drew the diplomatic line somewhere at the first ever U.S-Africa summit at the White House this week by not inviting Zimbabwe’s brutal dictator Robert Mugabe. But the guest list still included several other African leaders with only slightly better human rights records. The White House promoted the summit as the largest-ever gathering of African leaders in the United States, with more than 50 countries represented. The red carpet was rolled out for Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who shot or jailed virtually all his political opponents, Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who threatened to ‘cut off the head’...

Despite a history of rocky relations between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Obama administration could largely be counted on to watch Israel's back in the U.N. Security Council, where it succeeded for more than five years in blocking successive efforts by the Palestinians to gain more of the trappings of an independent state and to get the world body to formally censure Israeli settlement policies. That changed after the stroke of midnight Sunday when, in the early minutes of Monday, July 28, the U.N. Security Council, with the backing of the United States, issued...

“The U.S. is playing games with India. But America must understand that the world has changed, times have changed and India has changed.” Those were tough words from India’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath, but they fell on deaf ears in Washington. At issue is the case of India’s deputy consul general in New York, Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested and handcuffed by U.S. marshals as she dropped off her daughter at school on the morning of Dec. 12. Later, the 39-year old career diplomat was locked up, stripped naked and subjected to a search of her body cavities in...

The South Tampa woman connected to the Petraeus scandal called police to her home several times in the last few days, and at least once tried to invoke "diplomatic protection." Media from around the world have convened at the two-story Bayshore Boulevard home of Scott and Jill Kelley. Jill is the socialite mother of three whose FBI complaint about harassing emails eventually led investigators to uncover the CIA director's affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, and is now linked to the name of a second top general. The Kelleys have kept a low profile since news of the scandal broke,...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's envoy Isaac Molho will meet with top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Amman Tuesday for preliminary talks aimed at setting an agenda for peace negotiations, even as the Palestinians are preparing a diplomatic campaign that aims to put Israel under "a real international siege." (Snip) The diplomatic offensive the Palestinians are planning to launch later this month could include pushing the UN Security Council to pass a resolution condemning settlement construction and urging the International Criminal Court to try Israel for war crimes related to its 2008-2009 incursion into the Gaza Strip.

WASHINGTON -- Foreign leaders showered President Barack Obama and his family with hundreds of thousands of dollars in art, jewelry, rare books and other presents during their first year in the White House. Saudi Arabia's king was the most generous gift-giver. Government documents released on Tuesday show that Saudi King Abdullah gave the Obama family nearly $190,000 in luxury baubles in 2009. That includes the single-most valuable gift reported: a ruby and diamond jewelry set worth $132,000 for the first lady. The king also presented Michelle Obama with a $14,200 pearl necklace, the president with a marble-based clock adorned with...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli media say the Foreign Ministry has ordered the families of its diplomats in Turkey to leave that country because of the uproar over Israel's deadly naval raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. State-run Israel radio and other stations and newspapers say the diplomatic mission itself will remain in Turkey.

COPENHAGEN – A diplomatic frenzy enveloped the final scheduled day of the U.N. climate conference Friday, with President Barack Obama meeting with China's premier as world leaders pressed to salvage a global warming accord amid deep divisions between rich and poor nations. But neither Obama nor Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao offered any new commitments to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming as they addressed the conference. And Wen skipped a high-level meeting of major nations, sending an envoy instead. "We are ready to get this done today but there has to be movement on all sides to...

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2009 – With broad recognition that success in Afghanistan will require more than military might, the State Department is preparing for what’s expected to be an expanded role there after the U.S. Afghanistan strategy review. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent a cable to Foreign Service officers last weekend announcing plans to create more diplomatic positions in Afghanistan. “As part of our expanding efforts in Afghanistan, the department intends to create 14 additional FS positions in Herat and in Mazar-e-Sharif in 2009,” she wrote. “Because of the priority nature of assignments in Afghanistan,” Clinton said...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2008 – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today urged Russia to deliver on its pledge to cease fire in Georgia, as the United States draws up humanitarian aid plans in the wake of recent fighting in the former Soviet republic. Rice spoke to reporters at the White House after briefing President Bush on diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Georgia, where clashes with Russia broke out last week in the breakaway region of South Ossetia and escalated over ensuing days. “The Russians need to stop their military operations, as they have apparently said that they will,...

LONDON (AFP) - Britain is planning a "diplomatic surge" in the Middle East and south Asia to help counter extremism and nuclear proliferation, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in an article published Sunday. Writing in The Sunday Times, Miliband said 2008 would "show in word and deed" what Prime Minister Gordon Brown meant when he described his government's approach to world affairs as one of "hard-headed internationalism". "We plan a diplomatic surge in the Middle East and south Asia by raising the number of staff by 30 percent," he said. "That means we can deepen our engagement with Pakistan to...

LONDON - Former President Clinton has said his wife wants him to lead efforts to rebuild the United States' tarnished reputation abroad — if she is elected to the White House next year. The former president made the comments in interviews released Friday in Britain where he was fundraising for Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for next year's presidential election. Clinton was asked what his public role might be if his wife becomes president, in interviews with The Guardian newspaper and British Broadcasting Corp. television. He joked to The Guardian that Scottish friends have suggested his...

WASHINGTON - The State Department has a message for White House candidates wanting to expound on sensitive diplomatic issues: Shut up. Traditionally silent during presidential campaigns filled with divisive foreign policy debates, the department on Friday delivered a rebuke to would-be nominees of both parties whose recent comments have complicated U.S. efforts to overcome deep suspicion about the war on terrorism in the Muslim world. "Those who wish to hold office can speak for themselves and whoever is elected in 2008 and comes into office in 2009 will then be in a position to talk about what they intend or...