Free Republic

A federal judge in Texas on Saturday issued a court order barring enforcement of an Obama administration policy seeking to extend anti-discrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act to transgender health and abortion-related services. The decision sides with Texas, seven other states and three Christian-affiliated healthcare groups challenging a rule that, according to the judge, defines sex bias to include "discrimination on the basis of gender identity and termination of pregnancy." In granting an injunction one day before the new policy was to take effect, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor held that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Michelle Obama will be ceding the title of first lady to Melania Trump next month, but she may hold for some time the other distinction she earned during her time in the White House: America's best known advocate for healthy food. The non-profit organization she helped create as first lady, Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), where she is honorary chair, will continue its work convincing food companies to improve nutrition content and labeling of products, the group said. "Michelle Obama has been a tremendous leader in this space," said Larry Soler, president and chief executive...

General Motors was under fire this weekend after a casting call for Cadillac sought members of the controversial alt-right movement. According to an image of the casting call posted by the news agency Reuters and many, many others, the notice said an agency filming the ad was looking for "any and all real alt-right thinkers/believers." "This is a beautifully artistic spot that is capturing all walks of life of America," the casting call says, adding that it would be filmed later this month. "Standing together as a union. This is not meant to be offensive in anyway. Just a representation...

Muslims across the United States feared they were being targeted for surveillance this week when they received automated polling calls asking them to press one if they identified as Muslim or two if they did not. Many worried President-elect Donald Trump was making good on his campaign promise to register all Muslims in the country or private citizens were laying the groundwork for a registry. The calls were in fact sent out as part of a survey by Emerge USA, a non-profit organization seeking to empower Muslim-Americans. The group created an algorithm to call Muslims for a poll on their...

Reuters was reportedly the only news service to be providing video coverage of Donald Trump’s visit to a Detroit church on Saturday, and a mystery voice could be overheard ordering someone to “shut down” the feed before the event had concluded. Bishop Wayne T. Jackson was presenting Trump with a prayer shawl and two Bibles when a hushed voice off camera could be heard saying, “I’m shooting this, I don’t care what…” Moments later, the same voice said “Shut this down?” “Shut it, yeah,” another voice said.

What does a jihadi have to do to get credit these days? If screaming “Allahu akbar” isn’t enough to make his motive clear, what is? Would he have to drop his knife and announce: “I follow Allah. I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State. That is why I did what I did”? No, a convert to Islam named Edward Archer said that after he shot and seriously wounded police officer Jesse Hartnett, and the Mayor of Philadelphia, Jim Kenney, responded: “In no way shape or form does anyone in this room believe that Islam or the teaching of Islam...

If this poll accurately reflects the US electorate, get ready for the mother of all gender gaps (so to speak) in November if Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential nomination. The frontrunner has a major problem with women, according to this Reuters-Ipsos poll conducted over the first half of March, and it has gotten worse rather than better over the last six months. Half of all women have a “very unfavorable� view of Trump, in an election that could pit him against the first female major-party nominee: Real estate billionaire Donald Trump’s coarse rhetoric has won him some fans,...

Why — and how — Russia won in Syria By Josh Cohen March 15, 2016 Here’s what Russia achieved — and why it was so successful. First — and most importantly — Russian bombing turned the tide of the war in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s favor. Second, Putin recently achieved an important diplomatic objective by forcing the United States to acknowledge that Russia plays a key role in determining Syria’s future. Third, Putin responded to Turkey’s shoot down of a Russian jet by humiliating Ankara, an emerging rival in the Middle East and Central Asia. Putin also grievously wounded Turkey’s...

Reuters rolling poll (Trump 38.4, Cruz 16.2, Rubio 10.8)

It used to be said of OPEC that it was like a teabag - it only worked in hot water. If that is so, conditions on world oil markets could hardly be more difficult as prices languish at almost seven-year lows near $40 a barrel. Yet, rather than closing ranks, OPEC is finding that an intensifying battle for market share, worsened by deep regional differences between Saudi Arabia and Iran, is driving it further apart. Halfway through last Friday's six-hour meeting, an unexpected dispute erupted over the defining feature of the cartel. In a move sources say was masterminded by...

The Syrian army said on Saturday that Turkey had recently increased supplies of weapons, ammunition and equipment to what it described as terrorists in Syria, and accused its northern neighbor of firing shells at Syrian army positions. "We have certain information that the Turkish government has recently increased its support to the terrorists and the level of their supplies of weapons, ammunition and equipment necessary to continue their criminal acts," an army statement said. The Syrian government describes as terrorists all the groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the 4-1/2-year-long war that has moved into a higher gear since Russia...

A steadfast performance by Jeb Bush in Tuesday's Republican debate has halted the sense of desperation around his U.S. presidential campaign and may buy him time to counter the rise of chief rival Marco Rubio. The fourth Republican debate in the search for a 2016 presidential nominee was characterized by a steady stream of attacks against front-runner Donald Trump and mistake-free performances by Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, two up-and-coming U.S. senators in the race. But the most relieved candidate after the two-hour encounter inside the Milwaukee Theatre was Bush, the former Florida governor who was outclassed...

Thu Sep 24, 2015 11:19am EDT Related: World, Russia, Syria Syrian army uses new Russian jets to strike Islamic State: monitor Syrian government forces used newly arrived Russian warplanes to bombard Islamic State insurgents in Aleppo province in northern Syria, a group monitoring the civil war said on Thursday, in an attempt to break a siege on a nearby air base. Russia is bolstering its ally Damascus against rebels with military aid that U.S. officials say has included fighter jets, helicopter gunships, artillery and ground forces. The air strikes, which began earlier this week, were accompanied by ground attacks near...

Religious groups in the United States have urged the White House to step up its response to the Syrian refugee crisis, with one on Tuesday calling Washington's efforts so far "disappointing."Church World Service, a global humanitarian organization that represents 37 Christian denominations, has called on the government to take in 100,000 Syrians over the next year, said Jen Smyers, who works on the group's immigration and refugee program.The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and the Jewish refugee assistance agency HIAS along with secular groups have also backed that figure.

Euro zone countries tried in vain to stop the IMF publishing a gloomy analysis of Greece's debt burden which the leftist government says vindicates its call to voters to reject bailout terms, sources familiar with the situation said on Friday. The document released in Washington on Thursday said Greece's public finances will not be sustainable without substantial debt relief, possibly including write-offs by European partners of loans guaranteed by taxpayers. It also said Greece will need at least 50 billion euros in additional aid over the next three years to keep itself afloat. Publication of the draft Debt Sustainability Analysis...

(From Video Transcript:) The World Health Organization says Cuba has reached one of the greatest public health milestones possible. It has ended the mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. At a news conference in Havana, WHO representative Jose Luis di Fabio praised Cuba’s health system. […] UNICEF Representative Anna Lucia d’Emilio says Cuba’s achievement shows that ending the AIDS epidemic is possible. …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton promised on Saturday to fight for ordinary Americans who have been left behind as the economy recovers, appealing to working families at the first major rally of her 2016 White House campaign. Speaking on New York's Roosevelt Island, within sight of Manhattan's skyscrapers, Clinton promised would "make the economy work for everyday Americans, not just those at the top" if elected president. The gathering of several thousand people cheered as Clinton said working people are asking why wealth is reserved for chief executives and hedge fund managers. "You have to wonder, when...

(Reuters) - Appealing to working families in her first major campaign speech, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Saturday she would rewrite the U.S. tax code if she is elected so that it rewards hard work, and not quick equities trades or money stashed away overseas. She also pledged to establish a national infrastructure bank financed by bonds, an idea championed by President Barack Obama, a fellow Democrat.

It is hard to describe just how bad things are for the Republican Party. Each day it looks more and more like the Bates Motel from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film Psycho. More precisely, the GOP is actually most like the central character who owns the motel: Norman Bates and his alter ego, “Mother,” a.k.a. Norma. Norman appears to be a polite, sincere young man, if strongly dominated by Mother. But so what if he’s idiosyncratic, even eccentric, with a mother fixation? As a private individual, he has the right to be odd. Mother, meanwhile, wants absolute control over her son....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Republicans predicted on Sunday that both chambers of Congress would muster the votes to pass the "fast-track" authority sought by President Barack Obama to negotiate major trade deals, despite opposition from Obama's fellow Democrats. "Yes, we’ll pass it. We'll pass it later this week," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview with ABC. Republican U.S. Representative Paul Ryan said on CNN's "State of the Union" that he was confident the measure would also pass the House of Representatives. "We will have the votes," said Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. "We're...