Free Republic

Amazon magnate, the world's richest man and owner of "The Washington Post", Jeff Bezos, says he's being blackmailed by the "National Enquirer", a media outlet friendly to President Trump...... The Justice Department filing its opening brief in the appeal of last year's dismissal of charges against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and another key defendant in the Bunkerville Standoff case...... France has pulled its ambassador out of Italy for consultations two days after the leader of one of Italy's governing parties met Yellow Vests protesters in Paris.... After all the conflict or at least it appeared to...

Scotland’s capital Edinburgh is to become the first British city to introduce a tourist tax to try to better manage the impact of swelling visitor numbers and booming hotel occupancy, its council said on Thursday. […] The council said it would use funds raised by the £2 ($2.60) per room per night tax “to improve facilities and better manage the city”, as other European cities such as Barcelona and Rome have done. The tourist tax has been unpopular with some businesses, however. A survey conducted by the council found only a narrow 51 percent of accommodation-providers supported the idea, which...

President Jean-Claude Juncker of the European Commission has told British Prime Minister Theresa May that her 27 European Union partner countries will not renegotiate their agreement on Britain's exit from the EU. Calling it "a carefully balanced compromise", Juncker spokesman Margaritis Schinas said that May "raised various options" for getting around the main sticking point in the Brexit negotiations, the backstop arrangement to avoid checks on the Irish border. May and Juncker are due to meet again ...

President Trump will meet North Korea's ruler Kim Jong-un for a second time February 27th and 28th in Vietnam.... Restrictions on protest in France of individuals and groups passed in the National Assembly Tuesday. 387 in favor, 92 against with 74 abstentions.... Authorities in Paris believe an apartment complex fire Monday night was deliberately set... The Battle of Brexit or is it the Betrayal of Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa My intends to talk with the EU later this week and was in Northern Ireland Tuesday talking the "Irish backstop" issue Tuesday..... Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says if the Kurdish...

Roger Waters Stands with Nicolas Maduro, Praises Venezuela’s “Real Democracy” Pink Floyd bassist and singer Roger Waters has a very strange criterion for defining "real democracy"...which he claims exists in abundance in totalitarian Venezuela. Roger Waters has long been a supporter of far-left and socialist political causes (Twitter). Once again, the founder of Pink Floyd is standing on the side of totalitarianism; a position that no doubt is a result of his ideological prejudices and misconceptions. In the guise of “political activist” he is always on the same side: the wrong one. His visceral rejection of Israel and his childlike...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday offered a way to break the deadlock over the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, calling for a “creative” compromise to allay concerns over the future of Irish border arrangements.

I cannot help but think these Irish do-gooders are taking us straight back to the racist laws of the 1930s in Germany. Kauft nicht bei Juden! (Don’t buy Jewish!) The bill now making its way through the Irish parliament that aims to criminalize the trading of goods from Israeli settlements could not be more scandalous! As a native German and citizen of the European Union, I find this proposed law totally misguided, extremely unfair, wholly counterproductive to peace, and – most of all – morally outrageous. On its face, the bill would impose a fine of up to €250,000 or...

In 53 days, the United Kingdom will say goodbye to the European Union. It's been two years in the making, since the Leave campaign won by a slim margin, 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent, in the June 2016 referendum vote. Brits were tired of the EU's regulations and wanted to regain a sense of economic sovereignty. Yet, those same Brexit supporters are displeased with how Prime Minister Theresa May has handled the negotiations in Brussels. Parliament rejected her deal last month - overwhelmingly. But she has at least been steadfast about the date. The British government is so nervous about...

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay, MPs and government officials will discuss alternative arrangements to the Irish backstop as three days of talks begin. The Alternative Arrangements Working Group, with Leave and Remain MPs, will meet for the first time on Monday after the Commons voted to find another way of avoiding a hard Irish border. Home Secretary Sajid Javid has said "existing technology" could be used. The Irish PM said the UK was reviewing ideas that had "already been rejected".

British officials have revived cold war emergency plans to relocate the royal family should there be riots in London if Britain suffers a disruptive departure from the European Union, two Sunday newspapers have reported.

Britain would permanently regret leaving the European Union without a deal, and parliament needs to reach a decision to stop this in the next two weeks, business secretary Greg Clark said in a newspaper interview on Saturday. Clark’s comments in The Times come as the paper reported government documents warning Britain’s transport system could get overwhelmed after a no-deal Brexit, while The Guardian said officials feared mountains of rotting waste and animal slurry. Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, but members of parliament last month comprehensively rejected the exit deal Prime Minister Theresa May reached with...

Japanese carmaker Nissan is cancelling plans to make the next model of its X-Trail sports utility vehicle in Britain, less than two months before the country is due to leave the European Union, broadcaster Sky News said on Saturday. Nissan first said four months after Britain voted in June 2016 to leave the EU that it would manufacture a new model of the SUV in Britain, which was seen as a major vote of confidence in the country’s manufacturing future. The main production plant for the current X-Trail is in Japan, while Nissan’s plant in Sunderland, northeast England, makes the...

North Korea has pledged to destroy all of its nuclear enrichment facilities. That's the word from the US representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun..... "I'll continue to build the wall, and we'll get the wall finished" That's what President Trump told two "New York Times" reporters at the White House.... The US backed Syrian Democratic Forces are talking with Islamic State about the fate of the last ISIS fighters in the Euphrates River Valley in eastern Syria..... In northern Syria's Idlib province the attacks by the HTS jihadist group, formerly Al-Qaeda, have broken the peace guaranteed by Russia and Turkey...

As Wednesday’s News at Six show wrapped up, presenter Sophie Raworth reminded her audience of the night’s main news item. “Theresa May," she announced, "says she intends to go back to Brussels to renegotiate her Brexit deal, but EU leaders say the deal is done…” But as Ms Raworth mentioned the Prime Minister’s name, the screen instead cut to archive footage of Second World War planes in the sky.

But Parkfield Community School in Saltley defends programme which challenges homophobia in primary schoolsA group of angry mums have launched a protest and petition against their school for introducing a curriculum supporting homosexuality. Andrew Moffat MBE, assistant headteacher at Parkfield Community School in Saltley, has been criticised by parents for piloting No Outsiders - a programme run alongside sex and relationship education (SRE) lessons. Its ethos promotes LGBT equality and challenges homophobia in primary schools. Books now being read by pupils at Parkfield Community School include Mommy, Mama and Me and King & King - stories about same-sex relationships and...

FULL TITLE: 15 UK Christian churches get threatening letters warning them to stop ALL services, or they will face Islamic bombings and stabbings Islamic law forbids Christians to make public display of their religion. Could that ha “‘Petrol bomb’ threats sent to churches and supermarkets,” BBC, January 16, 2019 (thanks to David): More than a dozen churches have been sent “threatening letters” bearing a West Midlands postmark, with one letter warning of a petrol bomb attack. West Midlands Police is investigating and said churches and supermarkets in the region and further afield had been targeted “over a period of months”....

In Venezuela the opposition to Nicolas Maduro taking to the streets and in support of the interim President Juan Guaido today (Wednesday). Venezuela's Supreme Court, controlled by Maduro, has ruled that Mr. Guaido cannot leave the country and frozen his bank accounts...... The Battle of Brexit and two amendments approved Tuesday in Parliament that appear to be the fruit of a closing of ranks in the British Conservative Party..... There's a high level Russian delegation talking Syria and Iran on a visit to Israel this week.... Israeli politics and the new face in Israeli politics, retired Chief of Staff Benny...

London (CNN Business) - The British pound shrugged off a dramatic vote in the UK parliament that left the government's Brexit plans in tatters. Parliament on Tuesday struck down the divorce deal that Prime Minister Theresa May had negotiated with the rest of the European Union by a record margin. The defeat was expected, but the size of the loss — 432 votes to 202 — was a surprise. The pound, which had fallen below $1.27 earlier on Tuesday, erased its losses after the vote and strengthened to $1.28. Some analysts had predicted the pound would rally if May suffered...

Theresa May was handed a two-week deadline to resuscitate her Brexit deal last night after she caved to Tory Eurosceptics and pledged to go back to Brussels to demand changes to the Irish backstop. With just 59 days to go until exit day, MPs narrowly passed a government-backed amendment, tabled by the senior Tory Graham Brady, promising to replace the Irish backstop with unspecified “alternative arrangements”. But within minutes of the Commons result the European council president, Donald Tusk, announced that the EU was not prepared to reopen the deal. “The withdrawal agreement is, and remains, the best and only...

China state oil company CNOOC on Tuesday announced a major new oil discovery at the Glengorm prospect in the U.K. sector of the North Sea.