Free Republic

Hamas declared victory Sunday after Israel withdrew its ground forces from southern Gaza, partly in deference to President Joe Biden’s call for an “immediate ceasefire.” Israel now stands on the precipice of failure in the war. Israelis are asking, naturally, how this came to pass. The accidental killing of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) was the trigger, and some Israelis wonder if they should have emphasized aid for Gaza sooner.

Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Program and wife of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the situation in Gaza had become dire. Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Israel has also approved opening the Erez Crossing from Israel into northern Gaza to get this desperately needed aid in. How important is opening that crossing for you and your workers with the World Food Program? Will that help hold off this famine that you’ve said is imminent?”

A Florida resident surprisingly contracted flesh-eating bacteria after he was bitten by a man he is related to while trying to break up a fight at a family get-together. Donnie Adams was at a family function in Tampa Bay, Florida, in February 2022 when he intervened in a fight between two relatives. According to WSAV, one of the family members bit Adams on the thigh before he could stop the altercation. The wounded man said he immediately went to the hospital for a tetanus shot and antibiotics, but the treatments did not stop an infection from developing. “By the third...

Recent statistics from China’s central bank show that home buyers’ enthusiasm has fallen drastically. Despite price cuts and incentives, the world’s largest housing market continues to slump, and China’s banking sector is taking a hit on two fronts, as both defaults and prepayments rise. Meanwhile, China’s developers are starting to show the strain, with real estate giant Wanda Group making headlines this week as the value of its dollar bonds plunged. In early 2023, the Chinese real estate market had a short-lived rebound as local governments across the country issued policies to bail out the failing real estate sector, according...

Around three-quarters of a million Catalans have marched to demand the release of local politicians arrested for their role in the drive for independence. Spain’s central government has dissolved the Catalan parliament, dismissed the Catalan government, and imposed direct rule following the region’s unilateral declaration of independence on October 27th. This followed a self-determination referendum which the Spanish authorities deemed illegal and attempted to shut down violently, with the blessing of the European Union’s ruling bodies.Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s ex-president — or president-in-exile, depending on your point of view — had given some indication that he would ignore Madrid’s attempts to terminate...

In a statement on Friday morning, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the US missile strike violated not only international, and added that the attack “was on the brink of military clashes with Russia.” “Instead of their much-publicized thesis about a joint fight with a common enemy, Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL], the Trump administration has proven that it will fiercely fight against the legal government of Syria,” Medvedev wrote on his Facebook page. Ealier in the day, the Kremlin released a statement according to which "President Putin views the U.S. strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign...

Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is to hold an emergency government meeting at midday London time to discuss the failure of the latest round of discussions with its creditors to help stop the country tumbling into bankruptcy. Tsipras will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis, State Minister Nikos Pappas and Alternative Foreign Minister for International Economic Relations Euclid Tsakalotos in the wake of the breakdown of negotiations in Brussels at the weekend, a government spokesman confirmed. Talks between Greece and its creditors over the weekend yet again failed to resolve the impasse over reforms, with European officials blaming Greece...

Action Alert: Have you had enough? The relentless rhetorical onslaught against your values continues in Richmond, and just when you thought liberals couldn’t stoop any lower comes the diatribe on the House floor on Monday by Delegate Robert Brink (D-48, Arlington). According to Brink, legislators who support your values in the face of media ridicule – the sanctity of human life, the importance of marriage and religious liberty – are “ignorant, backward-looking buffoons.” They must be, according to Brink, because Saturday Night Live says so! Implied, of course, is that you too are buffoons, because you dare believe that an...

Seven months of unrest in Syria approached the brink of all-out armed conflict Monday as 41 people were killed, among them 11 soldiers who clashed with organized army defectors. Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Assad to immediately stop the killings of civilians, a day after the Arab League called for “national dialogue” to end the violence. “There are continuous killings of civilian people. These killings must stop immediately,” Ban said in Bern. “I told Assad: ‘Stop before it is too late,’” he said. “It is unacceptable that 3,000 people have been killed. The U.N. is urging him again to...

The Obama administration's support for an individual insurance mandate without a public option is triggering what appears to be a full-fledged liberal revolt against the Senate's healthcare compromise, and for the first time raises the realistic prospect that reform could die amidst internecine Democratic bickering. An ominous sign resonant of the contentious 2007 standoff over immigration reform: The conservative right and the hardcore left are both beginning to attack the current proposal, terming it a "monstrosity" and lambasting its cost. "Insurance companies win," DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas declared Tuesday. "Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate." If...

Days after lawmakers agreed to ask voters for $11.1 billion in debt for water projects, the state had to pay more than expected to sell its most recent bond issue. Brokers underwriting the sale of $1.9 billion in state general obligation bonds originally thought investors would demand a 3 percent yield. Instead, as the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday, "the state was forced to offer a 4 percent annualized tax-free yield to lure investors." That pushed the state's cost of borrowing at least a third higher than originally projected. That means the state, in order to borrow $1.9 billion, will...

The world's largest cat, the Amur tiger, is down to an effective wild population of fewer than 35 individuals, new research has found. Although up to 500 of the big cats actually survive in the wild, the effective population is a measure of their genetic diversity. That in turn is a good predictor of the Amur tiger's chances of survival. The results come from the most complete genetic survey yet of wild Amur tigers, the rarest subspecies of tiger.

Israel isn't famous for welcoming public scrutiny of its most sensitive military plans. But we doubt Jerusalem officials were dismayed to see news of their recent air force exercises splashed over the front pages of the Western press. Those exercises – reportedly involving about 100 fighters, tactical bombers, refueling planes and rescue helicopters – were conducted about 900 miles west of Israel's shores in the Mediterranean. Iran's nuclear facilities at Bushehr, Isfahan and Natanz all fall roughly within the same radius, albeit in the opposite direction. The point was not lost on Tehran, which promptly warned of "strong blows" in...

Afghan insurgents 'on brink of defeat' By Thomas Harding in Lashkar Gah Last Updated: 10:31PM BST 01/06/2008 Missions by special forces and air strikes by unmanned drones have "decapitated" the Taliban and brought the war in Afghanistan to a "tipping point", the commander of British forces has said. A member of 2 Scots acquires a personal escort as he patrols the town of Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province The new "precise, surgical" tactics have killed scores of insurgent leaders and made it extremely difficult for Pakistan-based Taliban leaders to prosecute the campaign, according to Brig Mark Carleton-Smith. In the past...

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) - A marathon conference on how to fight global warming in the next decade was poised for a breakthrough, with the United States showing flexibility, the UN climate chief said late Friday. The 190-nation talks on the Indonesian island of Bali headed deep into overtime after the United States and European Union feuded over the framework for accelerating the fight against climate change beyond 2012. But the atmosphere brightened in the last scheduled hours of the 12-day conference, said Yvo de Boer, the chief UN official on climate change. "On the brink of agreement, I think,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican Senator John McCain's waning White House bid was rocked Tuesday by the loss of its top two strategists, as they paid the price for shaky fundraising and plunging poll numbers. News broke that campaign manager Terry Nelson and top consultant John Weaver had quit as McCain was on the floor of the US Senate backing US policy on Iraq -- the issue that has done more than anything to dent his campaign. Once the presumed Republican establishment front-runner, McCain, a Vietnam war hero, is now short of cash, alienated from many key conservative voters and facing...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq is on the brink of total disintegration and could drag its neighbors into a regional war, a leading think-tank said, after the Pentagon confirmed violence was at an all-time high. The warning from the International Crisis Group came amid lawless chaos in Baghdad, where police were hunting for 16 kidnapped aid workers and a former minister who escaped from jail, allegedly with the help of US hired guns. The ICG's report called on Washington to distance itself from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's beleaguered government, which has failed to tackle sectarian militias, and reach out to the...

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California is forging ahead with the most aggressive U.S. program to reduce global warming -- a plan that pits Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger against fellow Republican George W. Bush. Both the governor and his state's Democratic-led legislature want to make California -- the world's eighth largest economy -- a model to follow with caps in greenhouse gas emissions that the U.S. president rejects. State politicians still are hammering out differences over the proposed Global Warming Solutions Act. If passed, it is likely to play a role in November's vote for governor and in national politics for years...

British troops in Afghanistan 'on the brink of exhaustion' By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 06/08/2006) British troops fighting Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan are on the "brink of exhaustion", The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. A Chinook helicopter lands to pick up British troops after a mission Commanders fear that the number of "high tempo" operations being launched against the Taliban is "unsustainable" unless the 3,600-strong task force is reinforced with an extra 1,000-strong infantry battle group. Since May, British troops in Helmand province have fought 25 major battles in which they killed an estimated 700 Taliban. Commanders say the...

Gaza on brink over hostage soldier By Patrick Bishop in Beit Hanoun and Harry de Quetteville in Gaza City (Filed: 04/07/2006) Hopes for a peaceful resolution of the crisis caused by the seizure of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants were fading last night as a deadline set by his captors approached with no sign of compromise. An Israeli tank returns after a mission in Gaza The three groups holding Cpl Gilad Shalit, 19, said Israel would suffer unnamed "consequences" if a substantial release of Palestinian prisoners had not begun by 4am British time today. But the office of Israeli...