Free Republic

North Korea has mysteriously locked down a major border city, a move reportedly connected to either the coronavirus — or a planned event for missing-again despot Kim Jong Un. The Hermit Kingdom — one of the few nations on Earth claiming to be coronavirus-free — barred entry earlier this month to Rason, a city of 20,000 that is a major hub for trade with Russia and China, sources told Radio Free Asia Tuesday. The notoriously secretive nation has refused to tell its citizens why the city was suddenly locked down, RFA said. Many fear that it could be a sign...

North Korea has axed its spy chief as well as the long-running head of Kim Jong Un’s security — signs of a major shakeup during the ongoing mystery over the dictator’s status. Jang Kil Song was ousted as head of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), the North’s military intelligence agency, according to the Korea Herald, citing a report by South Korea’s Unification Ministry. The RGB is behind the Hermit Kingdom’s most high-profile attacks as well as spy missions, including those against the US, the report says.

The declassification of material from the Michael Flynn case has exposed more chilling details of a concerted effort by prosecutors to come up with any crime to use against the former national security adviser. This week, however, a letter revealed a new unsettling detail. Among more than three dozen Obama administration officials asking to “unmask” Flynn from the investigation was former Vice President Joe Biden. This revelation came less than 24 hours after Biden denied any involvement in the investigation of Flynn. It also follows a disclosure that President Obama was following that investigation. For three years, many in the...

President Trump's spy chief is declassifying information that shows former CIA Director John Brennan "suppressed" information intelligence showing Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 election. Fox News chief White House correspondent Ed Henry said Tuesday evening that "it could get sticky" for Brennan, who served as CIA director under former President Barack Obama, for his role in developing the 2017 intelligence community assessment on Russian election interference that determined with "moderate" to "high" confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin sought to boost President Trump's 2016 election chances. "There's other intel that may have been more...

Tucker Carlson presses Trey Gowdy on his defense of the FBI's actions during the Russia investigation: "My mistake was relying on the word of the FBI and the DOJ and not insisting on all of the documents. Luckily, it took me about three weeks to correct that mistake."

"They knew well before the Mueller investigation that there was no 'there' there," she said. "They wanted to deflect attention [from] something very big. I don't know what it was that they were trying to cover up, but they went to enormous lengths to cover it up. It's very clear it wasn't just a few rogue agents at the FBI. This is not done by some mid-level government official in the Justice Department or the FBI. It was the highest levels of the FBI." . . . "You know, the last words that General Michael Flynn said to me the...

Faced with the grim reality that coronavirus isn't going anywhere anytime soon and polling that suggests he is a clear underdog to Joe Biden in the fall campaign, President Donald Trump is returning his attention to an old favorite: The idea that the so-called "deep state" -- including outgoing President Barack Obama! -- sought to sabotage his presidency before it ever began with allegations of Russian collusion. "They tried to take down the President of the United States, a sitting, duly elected president of the United States before I even won," Trump told "Fox & Friends" during a nearly-hour-long phone...

A fire has broken out at a hospital in northern Moscow where coronavirus patients were being treated, killing one patient and injuring several others, local officials and witnesses say. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. The incident began at 8:30 p.m. local time on Saturday when firefighters in the north of Russia’s capital were called to Spasokukotsky Hospital, where one of the units is being used to treat patients with COVID-19. Footage from the scene showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the hospital, but the fire was quickly brought under control and extinguished by 9:03...

President Trump torched Democrat Adam Schiff for gleefully pushing the Russia collusion hoax and gaslighting the world for four years by falsely claiming there was evidence to support that and the malicious prosecution of General Michael Flynn. . . . “This is a corrupt deal, and we caught them cold,” President Trump said. “Tremendous dishonesty from Schiff and others. These are not stupid people. They know it was a hoax. They know better than anyone in this room that it was a hoax. They set it up. I watched Shifty Schiff [lie to the American people on TV]. Nine inches...

There will be no tanks, no parade of soldiers and veterans in the heart of Moscow to mark the 75th anniversary of victory in World War Two. The Red Square 9 May parade has been cancelled because of the pandemic. But in neighbouring Belarus the parade will go ahead, complete with a concert in the centre of the capital Minsk and festive fireworks. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko appears unfazed by the pandemic. He has not followed the European pattern of imposing sweeping restrictions. Russia is still under lockdown, and for six days it has recorded more than 10,000 new Covid-19...

"Three Russian health care workers have mysteriously plunged from hospital buildings in the past two weeks after criticizing working conditions and hospital administrators amid the coronavirus pandemic. Two of the workers have died from their injuries and one remains hospitalized, the Moscow Times reported."

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff excoriated the Justice Department for dismissing charges against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn. “This dismissal does not exonerate him. But it does incriminate [Attorney General] Bill Barr,” the California Democrat said in a tweet Thursday, calling the move indicative of “the worst politicization of the Justice Department in its history.”

New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, as Andrea Widburg notes here, got a Pulitzer prize for lying about the massive crimes of communism in what was then the Ukraine. It's supposedly an embarassment. But not if you check out who got a Pulitzer this time: Greg Grandin, Hugo Chavez's biggest apologist. A guy who defends Hugo Chavez and all his crimes to his last breath. I'm not talking about a guy like Bernie Sanders who says 'yes socialism in Venezuela is great but there are problems.' Grandin is a real dyed-in-the-wool useful stooge who can't stop praising the brutal communist dictator. There never...

The CIA Inspector General has taken more than a year to clear the release of a House Intelligence Committee report which contradicts the key conclusion of the intelligence community assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to the former chief of staff of the National Security Council. The January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), prepared at the behest of President Barack Obama, claimed that Russia interfered in the presidential election in order to help candidate Donald Trump. The House Intelligence Committee’s public report (pdf) on Russia had already challenged the analytic tradecraft behind this central claim and suggested...

The Department of Homeland Security and FBI warned states earlier this year that Russia could look to interfere in the 2020 U.S. elections by covertly advising political candidates and campaigns, according to a law enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press. The Feb. 3 document details tactics U.S. officials believe Russia could use to interfere in this year's elections, including secretly advising candidates and campaigns. It says that though officials “have not previously observed Russia attempt this action against the United States,” political strategists working for a business mogul close to President Vladimir Putin have been involved in political campaigning...

FNC's Maria Bartiromo gave voice to many viewers of her show "Sunday Morning Futures" during an interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham, asking him point-blank why he is not using his powers as Senate Judiciary Chairman to launch investigations into a wide variety of matters: MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS: I've got to tell you though, I mean, we've been talking about this now for three years and when I first came on the scene and said, "Look, this is a coup to take down Donald Trump, I got slammed." Everybody out there was just going on this, you know, "Russia collusion...

First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter. WASHINGTON — A month ago, a California woman — Tara Reade — alleged that apparent Democratic nominee Joe Biden assaulted her 27 years ago when she worked for Biden in his Senate office, a charge that Biden vehemently denies. “No, it is not true. I am saying unequivocally — it never happened,” Biden said onMSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Friday morning. It's a complicated story, colored by Biden's past history of touching women (though never before in...

President Donald Trump responded to reports about North Korean despot Kim Jong Un, reposting state media photos that purport to show Kim attending a ceremony at a fertilizer factory. “I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Kim’s attendance at the ribbon-cutting ceremony was the first public appearance he’s made in about three weeks, and it comes amid speculation about his health. Several news outlets in Asia had reported that Kim, 36, was brain dead or had died, although South Korean officials said he was alive and still in control of the...

Berlin (AFP) - Germany on Thursday completely banned Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement from carrying out activities on its soil, as police raided mosques and venues linked to the group. Like the European Union, Germany had until now only outlawed Hezbollah's military wing while tolerating its political wing. But in a shift immediately welcomed by the United States and Israel, the German interior ministry said it now considered the entire movement a "Shiite terrorist organisation". "Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation deemed responsible for numerous attacks and kidnappings worldwide," Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told Germany's Bild daily. The interior minister "has banned...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is preparing a legal argument that the United States remains a participant in the Iran nuclear accord that President Trump has renounced, part of an intricate strategy to pressure the United Nations Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran or see far more stringent sanctions reimposed on the country. The strategy has been described in recent days by administration officials as they begin to circulate a new resolution in the Security Council that would bar countries from exporting conventional arms to Iran after the current ban expires in October. Any effort to renew...