Free Republic

Six people were wounded in a knife attack at a far-right rally in Germany on Friday, including a prominent critic of Islam, drawing immediate condemnation from the nation's leaders. The attack, just days before EU-wide elections, comes amid a spike of politically motivated violence in Germany. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser raised the possibility that the assault could have been Islamist motivated. A man with a knife attacked and wounded several people on the market square in the city of Mannheim in southwest Germany at around 11:35 am (0935 GMT), police said in a statement. Five of those wounded were taking...

Russia has accused Nato and the US of "provoking a new level of tension" after the US and Germany became the latest allies to let Ukraine's military to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Nato countries, especially the US and several European countries, had "entered a new round of escalating tension and they are doing this deliberately", in remarks quoted by the Tass news agency. The UK and France had already signalled they were open to easing restrictions on Ukraine striking military sites on Russian territory, before US President Joe Biden said on...

The German government said Friday that Ukraine can use German-supplied weapons against Russian attacks from positions just over their joint border, in a significant policy change that came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden gave Kyiv a green light to strike back with American weapons at Russian military assets targeting the country’s second-largest city. A German government statement noted that, in recent weeks, Russia has prepared, coordinated and carried out attacks on Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, in particular from areas just over the border in Russia. "Together we are convinced that Ukraine has the right under international law to...

US President Joe Biden has given Ukraine permission to use American-supplied weapons to strike targets in Russia, but only near the Kharkiv region, US officials say. One told BBC News his team had been directed to ensure Ukraine was able to use US weapons for "counter-fire purposes" to "hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them". Russian forces have made gains in the Kharkiv region in recent weeks after a surprise offensive in the area, close to the border with Russia. On Friday, Ukrainian officials said three people had been killed and 16 injured in Russian...

You may have missed the news, but last week an Army colonel – nice to see an Army colonel doing something besides sharing xis pronouns – at Fort Bragg, which communists now call “Fort Liberty,” caught a Chechen illegal alien lurking in his backyard taking pictures of his kids and smoked him like a fatty at a Cypress Hill concert. This colonel might have been from Delta Force, but he is definitely part of the special operations community, and you might well be wondering what some Chechen illegal alien was doing in his backyard. In fact, there were two of...

"It's locked up in an escrow I think. There's about $5.5 million that are locked up in an escrow seized by the Government of Ontario. They have a seizure order on it, as well as a forfeiture order on it.".. Freedom Convoy protestor Tamara Lich, who has attracted continued media attention for being part of what she calls “the longest mischief trial in history” along with friend Chris Barber, revealed in a recent interview that the Ontario government is still withholding funds sent by supporters of the 2022 protest to Give Send Go. Lich and Barber are charged with mischief,...

Western countries should let Ukraine strike military bases inside Russia with the sophisticated long-range weapons they are providing to Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron said, pressuring his allies in the most recent sign of a potentially significant policy shift that could help change the complexion of the war. The question of whether to allow Ukraine to hit targets on Russian soil with Western-supplied weaponry has been a delicate issue since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. Western leaders have mostly shrunk from taking the step because it runs the risk of provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin,...

With six months to go until the presidential election, America's NATO allies are planning to boost their defense spending ahead of the potential disruption of a second Donald Trump presidency. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is preparing a funding plan to try to insulate the 75-year-old military partnership from any changing political realities that might affect the alliance, according to Oana Lungescu, who until last year was the longtime lead NATO spokesperson for Stoltenberg. "It is important to have predictability both for allies and for Ukraine," Lungescu told CBS News. "This [plan] relieves the U.S. of some of its organizational...

Poland has signed a $735 million contract with the U.S. for the supply of JASSM-ER missiles, Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Tuesday. The country is spending heavily to bolster its armed forces since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Warsaw is spending around 4% of its gross domestic product on defense this year and last week announced an agreement with the U.S. The missiles have a range of around 621 miles, according to the defense ministry.

Poland’s foreign minister says the NATO nation should not exclude the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine and should keep Russian President Vladimir Putin in suspense over whether such a decision would ever be made. Radek Sikorski made the comments in an interview published Tuesday in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. “We should not exclude any option. Let Putin be guessing as to what we will do,” Sikorski said when asked whether he would send Polish troops to Ukraine. But a spokesperson for Poland’s Defense Ministry, Janusz Sejmej, told Polish media on Tuesday he had “no knowledge of that”

Between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in one city in Sudan's West Darfur region last year in ethnic violence by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militia, according to a United Nations report seen by Reuters on Friday. In the report to the U.N. Security Council, independent U.N. sanctions monitors attributed the toll in El Geneina to intelligence sources and contrasted it with the U.N. estimate that about 12,000 people have been killed across Sudan since war erupted on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese army and the RSF. The monitors also described as "credible" accusations...

The Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group that opposes the Sudanese army in Sudan’s civil war, launched an assault on the town of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, on May 10. Hundreds of people have already been reported killed in the fighting, and our Observers fear exactions against non-Arab ethnic populations should the town fall into the hands of the RSF. The fighting has claimed more than 450 lives since May 10, according to an assessment made by Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) on May 18. The NGO also stressed that the total number of victims was probably much higher....

Ukraine urgently needs new soldiers, but some — left uneasy by brutal fighting and intensifying conscription efforts — are desperately trying to avoid being called up. “When you see people in uniform, you panic. You start thinking someone will mobilize you now against your will,” a lawyer based in Kyiv told NBC News. He did not want his identity known, fearful, like a growing number of men across the country, of being drafted into the army... “I love my country,” he said in a phone interview earlier this month. “I donate to the Ukrainian army. But unfortunately, I am not...

An unusual exchange of fire occured this morning (Monday) between IDF forces and soldiers of the Egyptian army in the Rafah Crossing area. During the incident, an Egyptian soldier was killed and several others were injured. There were no casualties among the IDF forces. Israeli officials stated that the incident began when an Egyptian soldier opened fire at IDF troops, who then returned fire. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit stated, "A few hours ago (Monday), a shooting incident occurred on the Egyptian border. The incident is under review and discussions are being held with the Egyptians." .....

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Western leaders to pressure Russia into peace using "all means" necessary. ... Mr Zelensky has long said he will not negotiate with Russia directly until Moscow's forces leave all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea. ... The Ukrainian president rejected the idea of inviting Russia to a planned peace summit in Switzerland next month. ... Delegates will "try and chart a course for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine" based on 10 demands set forth by Kyiv calling for the return of all invaded territory, reparation payments for war-related damages and the creation of a...

The IDF has reduced the number of troops deployed in eastern Rafah and the Givati Brigade left the Gaza Strip overnight from the area where it had been operating for the last three weeks. The military explained, according to a report by Ynet, that this was done to allow the troops to return to Gaza and Rafah at a later date 'refreshed' after weeks of combat. Four combat teams from the 162nd Division remain. According to the report, the Givati Brigade's departure from the southern city in the Gaza Strip comes amid reports that Israel will allow the reopening of...

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said Ukraine should be allowed to use Western-supplied weapons in strikes against military targets inside Russia. In an interview with The Economist published on May 24, the NATO head called on members to “consider whether they should lift” their current restrictions, saying they make it “very hard” for Ukraine to defend itself.

The temporary piers established at President Biden’s order have run way over budget and caused several issues since USAID commenced deliveries, leading some lawmakers to question the value of the operation. "At the end of the day, it's unnecessarily putting our people in harm's way. It's costing a lot. It's pulling assets that should be used elsewhere, and I just don't think it's going to accomplish anything near what he's promised," Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital in an interview. President Biden, during his State of the Union speech in March, pledged to establish a temporary pier in...

Sen. Vance, freshman senator from Ohio, started the conference critiquing what he called the foreign policy consensus: “One of my favorite passages from the Bible is ‘by their fruits, you shall know them.’ What are the fruits of the last 40 years of American foreign policy? Of course, it's a disaster in Iraq. It's a disaster in Afghanistan and Syria. It's [a disaster] in Lebanon. On issue after issue after issue, somehow, the foreign policy consensus in this town seems to almost always be wrong.” He levied this critique against the current war in Ukraine as well, saying that his...

ran buried President Ebrahim Raisi on Thursday, wrapping up a days-long funeral process that began shortly after his death on Sunday in a helicopter crash. After a bit of dithering, the regime decided to proclaim Raisi a “martyr” and treat him like a religious icon, holding a procession through several cities and burying him in a tomb at the revered Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, the city of Raisi’s birth. The regime’s choice of burial site provoked some anger in Iran, as his lavish funeral irritated citizens suffering through a terrible economy because of his policies. Iranians tired of living...