Free Republic

"Unable to live in a world with Donald J. Trump as president, Timothy Jay Curtis succumbed to cancer on Dec. 22, 2016," the first line reads. Curtis was gay and in an 18-year relationship with Pierre de Prez, who became his spouse two years ago.

Adding to the uproar over Rep. Devin Nunes’ disclosure that the communications of President Trump and his transition team may have been intercepted by American intelligence or law enforcement agents, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Thursday described Nunes’ actions as “very disturbing.” Nunes, the California Republican who heads the House intelligence committee, called a press conference Wednesday to announce that he had informed the White House that Trump transition communications may have been subject to “incidental collection” in the course of surveillance of other targets, possibly foreign. Nunes faced severe criticism from both sides of the aisle for making the...

President Donald Trump's chest-thumping nationalism and harsh immigration policies are the subject of a new play depicting an apocalyptic America where stadiums are turned into prisons and people become sick, hungry and frightened. "Building the Wall," which opened last weekend in Los Angeles, was written by Robert Schenkkan, a two-time Tony winner who co-wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated movie "Hacksaw Ridge." The play is set in the very near future, after the Trump administration makes good on a pledge to hunt down and arrest millions of unauthorized immigrants by imposing martial law. But things get horribly out of hand....

Two-thirds of Russians oppose the revival of Russian monarchy, believing that its historical time has passed, according to recent research from the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion. At the same time, 28% of Russians are not against reviving monarchy in their country, but say they don’t see a worthy candidate at this time, reports Interfax-Religion. The overwhelming majority of respondents (82%) believe the current republican form of government is more suitable. Smaller towns and villages approved of the current form slightly more, at 84-86%. In specifically choosing between monarchy and a republic, only 11% inclined towards monarchy....

Poland's prime minister drew a link on Thursday between an attack in London targeting the British parliament and the European Union's migrant policy, saying the assault vindicated Warsaw's refusal to take in refugees. Poland's right-wing, eurosceptic government has refused to accept any of the 6,200 migrants allocated to it under the European Union's quota scheme that is designed to share the burden of taking in the large numbers of migrants and refugees who have come to Europe over the past two years. "I hear in Europe very often: do not connect the migration policy with terrorism, but it is impossible...

Link only per FR posting rules.

Vote Summary Question: On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture re Nomination of David Friedman to be Ambassador to Israel ) Vote Number: 95 Vote Date: March 23, 2017, 01:07 PM Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Cloture Motion Agreed to Nomination Number: PN53 Nomination Description: David Friedman, of New York, to be Ambassador to Israel Vote Counts: YEAs 52 NAYs 46 Not Voting 2 YEAs ---52 Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Capito (R-WV) Cassidy (R-LA) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Cotton (R-AR) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Daines (R-MT) Enzi (R-WY)...

The disclosure came in a report Wednesday night, citing unnamed U.S. officials. FBI suggests that President Donald Trump may have worked alongside Russian officials to release information aimed at Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. The FBI has information indicating that associates of President Donald Trump were in communication with suspected Russian agents and that they may have coordinated on releasing hacked emails and other information to undercut Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, CNN reported Wednesday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

A former Russian member of parliament who defected to Ukraine and began sharply criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin was gunned down Thursday in downtown Kiev in an apparent contract killing. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the murder of Denis Voronenkov, a former member of Russia’s Communist Party who fled to Kiev in October 2016, an “act of state terrorism by Russia.” A suspected assailant was arrested after Voronenkov was shot twice in the head, dying on the spot. The suspect’s identity or other details were not immediately made public. In Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman denied Russian involvement in the killing.

FULL TITLE: 'Pray for a Muslim ban': Pauline Hanson urges supporters to respond to London's Westminster terror attack by demanding an end to Islamic migration in Australia One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has urged Australians to use the hashtag 'pray for a Muslim ban' in the wake of London's Westminster terror attack. In a video posted to her Facebook page on Thursday, the Queensland senator took aim at London's first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, for comments he made in September about terror attacks bring 'part and parcel of living in a big city'. 'People are feeling sorry for people over...

The Prime Minister has said the “Islamist” attack on Parliament was not “Islamic” and Islam is a “great faith”. Taking on the role of a theologian, Theresa May insisted: “It is wrong to describe this as Islamic terrorism. It is Islamist terrorism. It is a perversion of a great faith.” Speaking in Parliament, she also said the attack showed “the importance of all of our faiths working together, and recognising the values that we share”. Adding: “This act of terror was not an act of faith. It was a perversion; a warped ideology, which leads to an act of terrorism...

Buenos Aires (AFP) - A judge on Thursday ordered Argentina's former president Cristina Kirchner to stand trial on charges of financial mismanagement. It is the first of several cases against the combative 64-year-old leftist leader to go to trial. A string of cases targeting Kirchner and her rival, current President Mauricio Macri, are clouding Argentine politics ahead of mid-term elections later this year. Kirchner is accused of ordering the central bank to sell dollar futures at artificially low prices, causing Argentina to lose hundreds of millions. She denies wrongdoing. Kirchner's defenders say she should not be prosecuted for a mishandled...

An American man has been named as one of the victims of Wednesday's deadly attack in London, Kurt Cochran, 54 and from Utah, died in the attack and his wife Melissa was seriously hurt, their family has said. They were celebrating a 25th wedding anniversary and also visiting Melissa's parents, who work on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission. They were struck when the attacker drove a car over Westminster Bridge, near the Houses of Parliament. So-called Islamic State has said it was behind the attack, which left four people dead, including the attacker. Eight people have...

President Trump on Thursday reacted to the news that a Utah man was killed in Wednesday's terrorist attack outside Parliament, saying: "A great American, Kurt Cochran, was killed in the London terror attack." "My prayers and condolences are with his family and friends," Trump tweeted.

Facing Trump Administration, Iran Shows Fear And Military Self-Restraint, Halts Provocations, Threats, And Incitement – While Boosting Morale At Home And Delegating The Bulk Of Conflict To Its Proxies By: A. Savyon and Yigal Carmon and U. Kafash* IntroductionSince the establishment of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, which is known to be against Iran's revolutionary regime, Iran has faced a new reality. On the one hand, the U.S. is acting to organize the Gulf countries and Arab countries into an arrangement that Arab media have dubbed an "Arab NATO" which is aimed against Iran. On the other hand,...

Federal prosecutors are building cases that would accuse North Korea of directing one of the biggest bank robberies of modern times, the theft of $81 million from Bangladesh’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The man police believe to be responsible for the terrorist attack in Westminster has been formally identified as Khalid Masood. Scotland Yard named the 52-year-old after Islamic State claimed that the Westminster terrorist who brought bloodshed to the heart of London was a "soldier" of the terror group.

They stood in the centre of Brussels. Row on row. Hands held high, making hearts to the heavens. Showing the slaughtered they were not forgotten. Reminding themselves they were here with love. Looking to show humanity wins. That love conquers all. They lay in the centre of London, face down where they fell. Stabbed by a knife, rammed with a car, flung, broken, into the Thames, life bleeding out on the curb. And the news came thick and fast. An injured woman is assisted after a man drove a 4x4 into pedestrians along Westminster Bridge on Wednesday afternoon (snip) A...

From the Thursday edition of the Morning Jolt: The Point Devin Nunes Is Making That Trump Critics Refuse To Acknowledge It’s perfectly fair to ask whether the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee should be traveling to the White House to brief the president when the FBI Director just announced that there is an ongoing investigation into whether there was any collusion between the president’s campaign and a foreign government in the past year. But everybody’s whacking Rep. Devin Nunes around like a piñata right now, and it’s easy to forget he’s raising a perfectly valid concern.

Yet in her own response to the attack, UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “The British people will be united in working together to defeat those who would harm our shared values. Values of democracy, tolerance and the rule of law. Values symbolised by the Houses of Parliament. Values that will never be destroyed.” To speak about “tolerance” with several people dead at the hands of an Islamic jihadist in London is to signal that it will be business as usual in Theresa May’s Britain: nothing will be done to confront the ideology that incites its adherents to violence and...