Free Republic

While name calling isn’t new to the president, ”dictator” and “impressive” are a couple of fresh labels that Americans have for Barack Obama, according to survey data released Tuesday. Also of note, the most common words to describe Obama have stayed the same in recent years. When Pew surveyed adults earlier this month, the most frequently cited words were “good” and “incompetent,” the same results as in mid-2013. Back in 2009, the most common descriptors were “intelligent” and “good,” trailed next by “socialist.”

The U.N. Security Council condemned the recent escalation of attacks by the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram on Monday and expressed deep concern that its activities are undermining peace and stability in central and west Africa. The statement was sponsored by Nigeria, which had been reluctant to have the council discuss the Islamic militant group despite being a member of the Security Council. The Security Council has previously responded to specific terrorist acts by Boko Haram with press statements that do not become part of its official record. The militant group seeks to impose Islamic Shariah law across Nigeria, Africa's...

Orchestrated by the government, which obliged all its employees to attend, Chechens have held a huge demonstration in their capital Grozny to protest against the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed carried by French satirical magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’. Officials said over a million people gathered for the occasion. “What is happening in France, these cartoons, is an unbearable pain for each Muslim. We just want to show people that we should live in peace,” said one man. Protests continue throughout the Muslim world, but were much smaller in Tehran, where some 500 people answered a call to protest near the French...

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris prompted millions to take to the streets to show national solidarity and to pay tribute to the 17 people murdered. The attacks have also inspired a lot of soul-searching, as the French struggle to understand how three men, born and raised in France, could have trained the murderous intent of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State on their own countrymen. Prison was the crucible of their radicalization. There are five million to six million Muslims in France, less than 10 percent of the total population, but 60 percent of France’s prison inmates are of...

Tom Steyer is telling potential supporters that if he were to run for Senate in California, he would set policy goals related to climate change, taxes and public education. If he does not meet certain goals in six years, Steyer would pledge not to run for a second term. The billionaire environmentalist and former hedge fund manager spent $74 billion in the midterm elections in an effort to elect more lawmakers who want to fight climate change. Steyer also wants to ensure that the highest income earners pay effective tax rates that are at least the same level as the...

BRUSSELS -- EU High Representative Federica Mogherini met here Monday Nabil Al-Araby, Secretary General of the Arab League and discussed how to increase counter-terrorism cooperation. Speaking to reporters before the meeting, she underlined that terrorism "is not an issue between the West and Islam, terrorist attacks are targeting most of all Muslims in the world so we need an alliance and a dialogue to face the issue together." "We also need to take full responsibility for what we do and say, I think respect is one of the core values of the EU, drawing the line between freedom and respect...

More than half a million undocumented immigrants are living within the five boroughs of New York City, but slightly more than 230,000 are eligible for the deferred action programs created by President Barack Obama. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) released details data on featuring estimates of major U.S. counties and its undocumented immigrants population. MPI's data profiled 94 counties across the U.S. and discovered the five counties with the largest populations potentially eligible for either DACA and DAPA relief are Los Angeles, California; Harris, Texas; Orange, California; Cook, Illinois; and Dallas, Texas, accounting for 1.1 million people, or more than...

BAGHDAD - - A year after ISIL fighters captured Fallujah in Iraq’s Anbar province, the country’s Shiite-led government remains incapable of mounting a major offensive to retake the city or any of the key areas still held by the group. In January last year, Fallujah, 70 kilometres west of Baghdad, became the first major city to fall to ISIL. This was followed by a summer campaign that seized the country’s second-largest city, Mosul, and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, along with most of northern and western Iraq. Iraq’s slow-moving fight against ISIL has also highlighted the country’s sectarian tensions, given...

London: A new study has recently revealed that manicured lawns are major source of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming. Grass lawns soak up carbon dioxide, which is stored in the soil after the cut grass rots and so, like trees, they are considered good for the planet. But Dr. Chuanhui Gu of Appalachian State University in the US said that once the energy expended by mowing, fertilizer use and watering are taken into account, lawns actually produce more greenhouse gases than they soak up. The study is published in the Journal of Environmental Management.

Germany's anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement said it has cancelled a planned march on Monday, citing a death threat against organisers from the Islamic State jihadist group. "Cancelled! Dear friends, unfortunately we must cancel our 13th meeting due to security concerns," the group "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" said on its Facebook page on Sunday. "What in police jargon is called an 'abstract threat' has changed to a 'concrete death threat' against a member of the organising team. IS terrorists have ordered his assassination." "We take these leads very seriously," Spiegel quoted an unnamed high-ranking security official as saying....

Socialism: Venezuelans are being arrested for posting Internet photos of shortages in stores. So let's get this straight: Murder and mayhem are de facto legal in that crime pit, but posting evidence of socialism's failure merits jailing. As socialism plays out to its logical conclusion in Venezuela, the specters of long lines, rationing, troop enforcers, bizarre edicts and desperate statements are now the order of the day. Not only have more than a dozen Venezuelans been arrested for posting photographs of empty store shelves on social media, three governors have responded to long lines by — prohibiting them; ordering the...

Raising doves and pigeons is a deadly pursuit in ISIS-controlled Iraq. The popular hobby is in the sights of extremist Islamist fighters, who this week rounded up 15 boys and young men in the eastern province of Diyala for pursuing a pastime now deemed un-Islamic. Three have already been executed. The recent crackdown on bird breeders stems from ISIS' need for new fighters to battle the Iraqi and Syrian governments, as well as residents' growing desperation, according to the security official. Suspicion of bird-breeders stems from the fact they tend to feed their animals at the same time devout Muslims...

About 500 protesters gathered at an anti-Islam demonstration in Prague on January 16. The demonstrators carried signs and banners with slogans like “Europe, wake up!” “Islam is evil,” and “Moderate Islam does not exist.” The organizers of the rally were from a group that calls itself “We Do Not Want Islam In The Czech Republic.” About 20 people attended a counterdemonstration against racism and xenophobia that was held nearby.

Op-ed: The distorted mutation that is Islamic fundamentalism has to be acknowledged; many Muslims recognize there is a problem, which is not just a handful of Jihadists involved in terrorism. Any debate on Islam in Muslim countries and among Muslim communities in the West is like stepping into a minefield. When it comes to the media outlets and academe, for the most part, the subject of Islam sparks a convoluted and apologetic discourse; on the social networks, on the other hand, the discourse it prompts is a racist one. The thing is there's a problem. It's hissing and bubbling. Many...

Passengers are facing severe disruption after the Channel Tunnel was closed "until further notice" following a fire on a lorry. Eurostar says all its services today have been cancelled and trains are returning to their original stations. Kent Police said the fire happened at the French end of the tunnel and is being dealt with by the French authorities. There were no reported injuries, a police spokesman said.

When Dennie Wright went to sign up for Affordable Care Act insurance last year, it wasn’t a hard decision. His insurance agent told him he had only one insurer – Anthem Blue Cross – that he could buy from on the exchange, Covered California. Wright lives in a modest house overlooking a pasture in Indian Valley. It’s a tiny alpine community at the northern end of the Sierra Mountains, close to the border with Nevada. He lives in one of 250 zip codes where Blue Shield of California stopped selling individual insurance policies in 2014. “That was new to us,...

Three new studies offer new proof of how bad the earth's fever has gotten. It’s not often that the climate change deniers get clobbered three times in just two days. But that’s what happened with the release of a trio of new studies that ought to serve as solid body blows to the fading but persistent fiction that human-mediated warming is somehow a hoax. Good news for the forces of reason, however, is bad news for the planet—especially the oceans. “Today’s news is a clear and undeniable warning for all of us that we need to cut climate pollution and...

US Secretary of State John Kerry has paid his respects to the victims of last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. Mr Kerry told his French counterpart that he "felt bad" not being in Paris as he saw millions of people demonstrating. "This has touched him," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. "He saw the millions demonstrating, he told me that he felt bad not being here." At a ceremony at the Hotel de Ville, the city hall of Paris, Mr Kerry called the attacks a "living nightmare".

There is "heightened concern" about the risk to the UK's Jewish communities following last week's terror attacks in France, counter-terror police say. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said police were holding talks over "more patrols in key areas" after "anti-Semitic rhetoric from extremists". Authorities are also considering enhanced security measures to protect police officers, he added.

The International Criminal Court has begun considering whether to investigate alleged war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Hague-based ICC said on Friday it had "opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine". It is an automatic step taken by the court upon a referral. The Palestinians have asked the ICC to investigate Israeli "crimes" since June 2014. Israel and the US have strongly criticised the Palestinians' move. After the Palestinians applied to join the ICC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they had chosen "a path of confrontation" and that Israel would "not sit idly by". Israel...