Free Republic

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) says men from the “most violent countries in the world” are “invading” the U.S. through illegal and legal immigration. In an interview, King discussed the death of 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts whose body was found in September in a cornfield in her rural hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa after she was last seen jogging on July 18.Christian Bahena-Rivera, an illegal alien from Mexico, has been charged with first-degree murder in Tibbetts’ death after police say he admitted to confronting and chasing down the young woman. The illegal alien lived in a region of Iowa that was surrounded by sanctuary...

Despite media claims to the contrary, election Mexican officials previously promised to allow the invasion of Central American migrants. There is a history here. Heavily financed horde of Central American migrants has overwhelmed token resistance from Mexican military and advanced north toward Southern U.S. border.  As described by Associated Press today: “growing army of migrants resumes march toward US.”  This is a well financed, well organized, left-wing political operation strategically timed to reach the U.S. border and coincide with the 2018 mid-term election.Estimates as to the number of economic migrants varies between 7,000 to 10,000 and the numbers are growing...

As 2017 drew to a close, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) urged Americans to have more children. To keep the country great, he said, we’re “going to need more people.” “I did my part,” the father of three declared. Ryan’s remarks drew some eye rolls at the time, but as new data about the country’s collapsing fertility rates has emerged, concern has deepened over what’s causing the changes, whether it constitutes a crisis that will fundamentally change the demographic trajectory of the country — and what should be done about it. Women are now having fewer babies and at...

Andrew Brunson, the evangelical pastor being tried on espionage/terror charges in a controversial case that has badly bruised the U.S.’ relations with its NATO ally Turkey, is due to appear in court tomorrow. Hopes on the American side are that the 50-year-old native of Black Mountain, North Carolina, who has been held for a year in prison and under house arrest since July, will finally be freed.The hearing comes amid a burgeoning alignment between Washington and Ankara over Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident Saudi journalist who is feared to have been murdered by a Saudi hit squad in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. Secretary of...

THE HAGUE -- The United Nations' top court on Wednesday ordered the United States to lift sanctions on "humanitarian" goods to Iran that President Donald Trump re-imposed after pulling out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) unanimously ruled that Washington "shall remove by means of its choosing any impediments arising from the measures announced on May 8 to the free exportation to Iran of medicines and medical devices, food and agricultural commodities" as well as airplane parts, said judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf. The court said sanctions on goods "required for humanitarian needs... may have...

The Trump administration and some others in the U.S. government have sent some not-so-subtle hints lately that they are open to a military invasion of Venezuela to oust President Nicolas Maduro. “It’s a regime that frankly could be toppled very quickly by the military, if the military decides to do that,” President Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. The words seem to offer some encouragement for a coup, which may not come as a surprise because the New York Times published an investigation in early September that found that the Trump administration met...

US President Donald Trump will reportedly announce new tariffs on about $200 billion on Chinese imports. Meanwhile, Washington has invited Chinese officials to restart trade talks later this month. While Washington extends a carrot to Beijing, it is also swinging a stick. It is nothing new for the US to try to escalate tensions so as to exploit more gains at the negotiating table. The unilateral and hegemonic moves by the US will meet firm countermeasures from China. Against the backdrop of successive US offensives in the trade war, China will not just play defense. Nowadays economic and trade relations...

White farmers are being murdered and thrown off their land in massive numbers at the behest of their government. There is mass starvation in Venezuela. People have to eat their cats and dogs just to stay alive. In Myannmar, they're murdering Christians. They're also mass murdering Christians in India, as well as Sikhs, Muslims, Dalits, Assamese, Bodos, Manipuris, Dalits, and others. China is rounding up Muslims and forcing them into concentration camps, where they disappear, reminiscent of the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. They're also burning down churches and persecuting Christians. They previously expelled the Buddhists from Tibet. And throughout...

A U.S. State Department official has suggested that Washington could impose sanctions on China if it continues to buy Iranian oil after November 4 when sanctions specifically targeting Iranian oil sales abroad will kick in, the Wall Street Journal reports. The WSJ quotes newly appointed special representative and head of an Iran Action Group at the State Department as saying that, “The United States certainly hopes for full compliance by all nations in terms of not risking the threat of U.S. secondary sanctions if they continue with those transactions.” In addition, Brian Hook declined to rule out the possibility that...

Crude-by-Rail (CBR) has been a savior for North American producers seeking higher returns for heavily discounted crudes caused by a lack of pipeline take-away capacity. And CBR, once again, is on the rise. North American shipments of petroleum and petroleum products are up over 10% year-to-date compared to 2017. In May 2018, nearly 200,000 barrels per day were shipped by rail from Canada to the U.S., nearly five times that of June 2016. But, the story of CBR is really about how price differentials became so large in certain regions.

A group of pro-Erdoğan Turkish lawyers has applied to the Adana Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for the arrest of members of the US military at İncirlik Airbase in Adana for their alleged cooperation with the Gülen movement, according to a report by the Cumhuriyet daily on Friday. According to the report, lawyers working for the the Association for Social Justice and Aid (Toplumsal Adalet ve Yardımlaşma Derneği in Turkish, or TAY-DER), a front NGO that was set up on June 15, 2016 and formally registered a month later with the support of senior government officials, including some in the judiciary...

Helsinki agreement provides new hope for Syria The understanding on Syria reached by US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, especially regarding the return of refugees, represents a potential watershed in recasting US-Russian coordination to expand humanitarian assistance and bring the seven-year war to a close. The attention given to Trump’s remarks on Russian meddling in the 2016 election at the summit may be drowning out awareness of the impact of Helsinki, which is already being felt in the region. There seems to have been a list of short- and long-term action items for both...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would cancel the planned purchase of eight military helicopters from the United States as part of cost-cutting measures.Lopez Obrador, who handily won this month’s presidential election on pledges to fight corruption and cut government waste, said there had been plans to pay 26 billion pesos ($1.36 billion) for the helicopters to be used by Mexico’s navy. “This purchase is going to be canceled because we can not make this expenditure,” Lopez Obrador told reporters on Wednesday after meeting with incoming legislators from his MORENA party. Lopez Obrador is...

America has a big, big problem on its hands. Healthcare costs are rising at astronomical and unsustainable rates, and the country’s leader seems powerless to stem the tide. Perhaps that would not be a big problem if the economy was keeping pace. But it isn’t. In fact, growth in healthcare spending is projected to outflank economic growth by a factor of more than 2:1. The U.S. might be the largest economy in the world, but it still spends a disproportionately large amount on healthcare. In 2016, health care expenditure per capita clocked in at $10,348--about double the average spend by...

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro describes his close friend Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a “leader of the new multipolar world.” Maduro has been enthusiastically tweeting Erdogan's praises since July 8. Though Maduro may not be a good example of a statesman with wide international stature/prestige, his characterization of Erdogan is quite accurate.Erdogan’s July 9 inauguration might as well have been called a coronation with all the pomp that surrounded it. In addition to Maduro and the leaders of Pakistan, numerous countries in Africa, the Balkans, Southeast Europe and some of Turkey’s immediate neighbors, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended, plus old friends of Erdogan — former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi...

This Fourth of July, nearly 14,000 immigrants become America’s newest citizens, swearing the oath of allegiance at 27 naturalization ceremonies across the nation that coincide with the country’s 242nd birthday and the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. “When oath ceremonies are tied to the Fourth of July, it’s a message that immigrants believe in this country. It’s a beautiful and emotional thing,” Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, said. “United nations, from Albania to Yemen, are represented in the ceremonies.” Hoyt added that NPNA believes “naturalization is good for the immigrants, their...

The United States on Thursday warned its citizens against travelling to Turkey, citing a nationwide crackdown that has led to the arrest of thousands of people, including US passport holders.“Reconsider travel to Turkey due to terrorism and arbitrary detentions,” the State Department said, retaining a travel warning already in place.US citizens had also been subject to travel bans that prevented them from leaving the country, the State Department said on its website. “Under the State of Emergency, security forces have detained tens of thousands of individuals, including US citizens, suspected of affiliation with alleged terrorist organizations based on scant or secret...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:20 A.M.) – The Russian military officially entered the southwest Syria offensive this evening, a source told Al-Masdar from the Dara’a Governorate. The Russian Aerospace Forces unleashed a massive assault over northeastern Dara’a, tonight, targeting several areas controlled by the jihadist rebels. According to a military source in the government stronghold of Izra’a, the Russian Aerospace Forces launched over 20 airstrikes across northeastern Dara’a tonight. The source told Al-Masdar that the Russian Aerospace Forces specifically launched airstrikes over the towns of Masikah, Aeeb, and Busra Al-Harir. The added that the majority of the airstrikes were launched on the...

Image from Small Arms Review According to the Small Arms Survey, world wide private firearms ownership has increased from about 650 million in 2006 to 857 million at the end of 2017. That is a 32% increase over the eleven year period, or 207 million firearms. The estimate for the United States increased from 270 million in to 393.3 million, a 46 percent increase or 123.3 million firearms, over the same period. The United States accounted for 60 percent of the total global increase. From smallarmssurvey.org: Uncertainty about any firearms data requires systematic estimation that relies on a broad...

Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from this charade sends a signal that the United States, the UN’s largest funder, will no longer tolerate business as usual, including double standards and hypocrisy, at the UN The United States has withdrawn from the United Nations Human Rights Council. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced the Trump administration’s decision at the State Department Tuesday afternoon. “We take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of...