Free Republic

Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns is heading to Doha, Qatar, in a last-ditch effort to save talks on a potential hostage deal between Israel and Hamas after the terror group balked at Israel continuing the war against it.

US aid to Ukraine will help Ukraine launch counteroffensive in 2025, Sullivan says.

OPINION China’s recent outcry over the alleged breach of ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ with the Philippines reveals a profound irony, given the history of its coercion and deceit There is a huge amount of insincerity and gall involved in the Chinese complaint that the Philippines had torn up the bilateral ‘Gentleman’s Agreement,’ between Beijing and Manila. While the term ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ has an implicit assumption of ‘trust’ as a fundamental tenet besting a relationship, which may otherwise not be legally binding -- to even imagine that there has been any element of ‘trust’ between these two sparing countries, is to put oneself...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a video statement on Sunday insisting that Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demand that it end the war as a condition of a deal to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. “Israel has been, and still is, ready for a pause in the fighting in order to free our hostages,” he said. “[But] Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which would mean surrender; it will continue fighting until all of its objectives are achieved.”

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed Bill 7, declaring the City and County of Honolulu a “Purple Heart City” to honor recipients of the Purple Heart. The bill was passed on April 17 and was signed on Friday. According to the City and County of Honolulu, those who were injured, wounded, or died in the line of duty receive the Purple Heart for their bravery and sacrifice. “I’m just really grateful to all of you, not only for your service and what you represent but for having the opportunity to become a Purple Heart City and all that...

In Ukraine, the Russians are slowly grinding down the Ukrainian army and there is the prospect of a major Ukrainian collapse and/or a major Russian offensive. Signs of collapse are evident due to manpower/materiel shortages but no one can say for sure when these things will happen. Another event many are expecting is an attack on the Kerch Bridge, which even I, the arch optimist, am expecting to happen sooner or later… … May Day - Trophy Exhibition Opens in Moscow Workers all over the world have been celebrating May day and Russia marked it be opening an exhibition of...

“The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs says that a large-scale European war is not a fantasy, and the Poles are already saying that there is no diplomatic solution to the war,” the Prime Minister noted on the program, adding that “Europe is playing with fire, we are on the frontier between peace and war.” As Hirado.hu reports, the Prime Minister recalled that once in 1999, our country managed to stay out of war, when an attempt was made to involve us in the southern Slavic conflict against the Serbs, which would have ruined Serbian-Hungarian relations and the...

mid rising tensions and a backdrop of Russian aggression in Ukraine, Poland has issued a stark admonition regarding the potential repercussions of a direct military conflict between Russia and NATO. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, addressing the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, underscored that an attack by Russia on any NATO member would not only be a strategic blunder but would result in Russia’s “inevitable defeat.”

Russian crowds are flocking to see a new exhibition in Moscow of NATO military hardware that was captured by Russian forces in Ukraine. The display features a range of “trophies,” ranging from U.S.-made armored fighting vehicles to state-of-the-art tanks and European armored personnel carriers, from 12 countries including the U.S., U.K., France, Sweden, South Africa, Turkey, Australia and Germany. People look at U.S. M12A1 Abrams tank captured by Russian forces in Ukraine, displayed at the WWII memorial complex at Poklonnaya Hill western in Moscow, on May 1, 2024. ……

epublic First Bank, a Pennsylvania-based financial institution, has collapsed, with the FDIC covering customers’ deposits by transferring them to Fulton Bank after an agreement was reached with the federal agency. This is the first major bank collapse this year, following five that occurred in 2023, as the high-interest rate environment destabilized the balance sheets of major financial players. When Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)collapsed in spring 2023, many economists warned that more could follow—and they did. Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, Heartland Tri-State Bank, and Citizens Bank collapsed in the succeeding months, a sign of instability as the Federal Reserve’s monetary...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) approved a plan Sunday for attacking the final Hamas stronghold in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, near the Egyptian border, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to visit on Tuesday. The IDF said in a statement: Today (Sunday), on the eve of the second holiday of Passover, the Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, discussed and approved plans for the continuation of the war with the Commanding Officer of the Southern Command, MG Yaron Finkelman, and all the division and brigade commanders in the command.

Former International Court of Justice President Joan Donoghue says media inaccurately covered interim verdict in January, which ruled on rights of the plaintiffs, not Israel's actions. Video from X

UBS Group Chairman Colm Kelleher on Wednesday said that the Swiss bank is "not too big to fail," as he criticized Swiss government proposals to strengthen its capital requirements. "UBS is not too big to fail. UBS is one of the best capitalized banks in Europe, with a sustainable business model and a corresponding low-risk balance sheet," Kelleher said. The Swiss government earlier this month made a range of recommendations aimed at protecting the wider economy from potential instability at UBS and three other major banks.

The Ukrainian army has come under rare criticism from military analysts for allegedly bungling up a troops rotation that allowed Russia to capture 5km of land, highlighting the strains Kyiv’s forces are under as they await the arrival of fresh US aid. Deep State, a Ukrainian analytical group with ties to the defence ministry, on Wednesday said the Russian advance late last week in the southern part of the village of Ocheretyne had been caused by a rotation that left the area unprotected. The criticism comes a day after the US Senate approved a $61bn aid package for Kyiv which...

Ukrainian men are protesting at the consulate in Warsaw, Poland, after Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba announced men aged 18 to 60 would be denied consular services earlier this week.Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz stated of the 950,000 Ukrainians living in Poland, Warsaw would assist Kyiv in enforcing the conscription requirements for the Ukrainian men.Kosiniak-Kamysz also stated that many Poles were upset seeing military-aged male Ukrainian refugees throughout Poland despite the amount of support that has been sent to Ukraine:I also understand the frustration of Poles who see young Ukrainians of draft age in hotels and cafés, while...

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby stated that Hamas doesn’t care about the Palestinian people and if they did, “they’d lay down their arms, they’d step aside, they’d release those hostages,” but they’ve refused hostage release offers. Kirby also stated that there have been too many civilians killed in Gaza and the number of civilian casualties “needs to be zero.”

U.S. troops have begun construction of a pier to be used to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday. “I can confirm that U.S. military vessels, to include the USNS Benavidez, have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said. The news came on the same day Palestinian terrorists fired mortars at United Nations officials as they toured the proposed pier site, as Breitbart News reported.

A lot is written every single day about how overpowered the Ukrainians are in their fight against the ever-strengthening Russian Federation forces.But now, the most pressing issue of the absolute lack of manpower by the Kiev regime is coming to the forefront of public opinion. (snip) "'I think many Poles are outraged when they see young Ukrainian men in hotels and cafes, and they hear how much effort we have to make to help Ukraine', he said, without giving any details on how Poland will help.Some 4.3 million Ukrainians are living in European Union countries as of January, 2024, of...

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that Europe could “die” if it fails to build its own robust defense as Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, or if it fails to undertake major trade and economic reforms to compete with China and the U.S. . . . “Our Europe today is mortal,” Macron said. “It can die and that depends solely on our choices,” he added. He called on people to make those choices now because, “it’s today that Europe is between war and peace.”

Overnight, terrorists fired anti-tank missiles toward the area of Har Dov in northern Israel. As a result, an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work was injured and he was later pronounced dead. The victim was identified as Sharif Suad, a resident of Ras al-Ein, an Arab village in the Galilee. Overnight, IAF fighter jets struck Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Chebaa in southern Lebanon, including a weapons storage facility and a launcher used by the terrorist organization. In addition, IDF soldiers fired to remove a threat in the area. Furthermore, IAF fighter jets struck Hezbollah operational infrastructure in the...