Free Republic

A group of largely Hispanic protesters organized a peaceful demonstration on Tuesday against the presence of delegations from the communist regimes of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. The event was the latest in a series of similar peaceful protests in New York over the week against the Cuban communist Castro regime, the Venezuelan socialist Maduro regime, and the Nicaraguan Sandinista Ortega regime. “The [U.N. General] Assembly is gathering here those who call themselves presidents,” Cuban activist Ana Olema told the outlet Cibercuba. “And we are here in support of the Venezuelans,...

President Biden is delivering his annual address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York Tuesday morning. One central issue Biden is expected to address is international support for Ukraine as its struggle to expel Russian invaders turns from a hard summer counteroffensive toward its second winter. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will also be in attendance. Russian President Vladimir Putin — who, like Chinese President Xi Jinping, skipped the recent G20 summit — will not. Biden will also likely speak about the climate crisis, as well as security for food and energy, building infrastructure globally and support for the economies...

In secret audio obtained by The Tennessee Star, radical leftists who plan to “protest” the upcoming August special session of the General Assembly say they have armed security at the ready. “Also, like there are groups in Nashville who do this – keep in mind – who like, if at any point you need armed security at a protest, there are people who we trust as a community to show up and do that,” said an organizer of the Saturday meeting. The Star obtained the audio from an inside source who attended the meeting, and will be releasing it in...

Tennesseans were outraged when a patients rights caption bill failed on Tuesday before they had a chance to speak. Doctors and citizens from all over Tennessee traveled to the Nashville Capitol, packing the Health Subcommittee room and hallways, to testify on behalf of the bill sponsored by Representative Todd Warner (R-Lewisburg-D92). The Healthcare Recipient Rights Act would ensure that patients are allowed visitation by family members and advocates in the case of inability to make one’s own medical decisions. In addition, it requires informed consent for treatments that are authorized for emergency use only. Warner was promised by Health Subcommittee...

Every year the PA promises the EU that it will clean up its textbooks, to revise or replace them, because of their antisemitic content, and every year it turns out that nothing has been changed, yet it still receives its funding from the EU. This year may be different. A report on the latest EU-PA contretemps is here: “PA hasn’t removed hateful content from textbooks, producing worse content,” by Ben Zion Gad, Jerusalem Post, January 28, 2022: The Palestinian Authority (PA) has reneged on an agreement with the EU to revise its academic curriculums in 2021 and has instead...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court on Tuesday blocked enforcement of parts of a trial judge’s recent order that demanded $1.75 billion in state taxpayer funds be spent — without express legislative approval — to address public education inequities. The majority on a three-judge panel sided with a request by State Controller Linda Combs that it prevent Superior Court Judge David Lee’s order from being enforced. It agreed Lee crossed the line by appropriating money — a job the majority said rests solely with the General Assembly. Combs leads one of three state offices that Lee directed...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Leaders who are “playing” at unity and stuffing pressing problems into an overflowing bag of woe. A world that’s in the same boat, but first-class passengers get the lifeboats. A United Nations that resembles ”a retired superhero” that has lost sight of what it used to be. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy certainly wasn’t the only world leader at this week’s U.N. General Assembly meeting to paint a dire picture of international relations. But the former actor and comedian may well have painted the most colorful one. In a speech Wednesday, he called out failures in areas...

Maryland transportation officials announced Thursday that they have selected Australian toll road operator Transurban to develop high-occupancy toll lanes for the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270, potentially cementing the company’s dominance in the Washington region. If Transurban and its partner, Australian investment bank Macquarie Capital, ultimately reach a 50-year deal with the state to build and operate the lanes, Transurban eventually would control 102 miles of express toll lanes around the nation’s capital — 37 in Maryland and 65 in Northern Virginia. Connecting high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in the two states would mark the beginnings of a regional network of...

How you can help with lobbying the General Assembly starting on January 8, 2020While VCDL Lobby Day is on Monday, January 20, 2020, VCDL will actually be busy lobbying the General Assembly from the first day of the session, which is January 8 this year, to the last day that any gun bills are being considered. This is what we do every year and nothing is any different this year. The third Monday in January is VCDL Lobby Day every year. That date is picked because it is a federal holiday, which allows more gun owners to be able to...

A powerful General Assembly committee voted Friday to revise Gov. Larry Hogan’s more than $46 billion budget proposal to provide millions more in funding for Maryland’s public schools, while cutting some of the Republican governor’s prized initiatives. Led by Baltimore Democrat Maggie McIntosh, the House Appropriations Committee approved a spending plan that provides about $320 million more for operating Maryland’s public schools. That would be the first step toward implementing recommendations from the so-called Kirwan Commission, which has proposed ambitious new programs to boost student performance. The committee’s spending plan also includes $500 million for public school construction and $46...

A U.S. attempt to get the United Nations to condemn violence by Palestinian militant group Hamas for the first time failed on Thursday because the draft resolution fell short of votes needed in the General Assembly. The resolution required two-thirds support and while Assembly resolutions are non-binding, they can carry political weight. The U.S. text received 87 votes in favor, 58 against, 32 abstentions and 16 countries did not vote. In an earlier procedural move requested by Kuwait, the 193-member body narrowly voted to require two-thirds support and not a simple majority for adoption of the draft resolution. Outgoing U.S....

WINCHESTER — The Frederick County Transportation Committee on Monday expressed concerns that the county may not get the Interstate 81 improvements it needs to reduce traffic congestion and accidents. The Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment, the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Department of Rail and Public Transportation are studying the entire length of the I-81 corridor in the Virginia, as directed by the General Assembly, to identify changes that will reduce traffic backups and crashes as well as find the funding to make those changes. The I-81 study team identified 105 projects — valued at $4.25 billion —...

The American Iranian diaspora that stands against the regime in Iran last month came to New York, my city, as the international community does during the annual United Nations General Assembly meetings. For the ninth time, I had the honor of addressing them. We have an obligation to listen to what the Iranian people have been saying over the past nine months in their continuous nationwide protests. I am one of a large bipartisan group of former governors, mayors, military leaders, senior administration officials and members of Congress, who agree on one critical foreign policy, as the Iranian people do:...

Maryland lawmakers want to create an individual health care mandate at the state level — in response to Washington gutting it at the federal level — and turn it into a down payment for people to pay for health insurance. Supporters outlined the proposal Tuesday, a day before the Maryland legislative session begins, adding it could also work in other states to help keep insurance premiums from skyrocketing. The Maryland General Assembly is controlled by Democrats. The federal tax overhaul approved last month removed the federal penalty that was charged to people without health insurance. Under Maryland legislation, the state...

September 19, 2017 The full text of President Donald J. Trump’s speech to the United Nations 72nd General Assembly can be found here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/09/19/remarks-president-trump-72nd-session-united-nations-general-assembly The full video of President Donald J. Trump’s speech to the United Nations 72nd General Assembly can be found here: https://youtu.be/H8xHdGSJWLs

The United Nations has invited a Black Lives Matter activist to participate in a high-level debate in New York on human rights, with a particular focus on “combatting discrimination and inequalities.” The two-day U.N. event Tuesday and Wednesday comes amid tensions over last week’s police shootings of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana, and the killing by a gunman of five police officers during a Black Lives Matter protest march in Dallas. Hosted by U.N. General Assembly president Mogens Lykketoft, the event entitled “Human Rights at the center of the global agenda” involves keynote speeches, a plenary debate among...

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has announced with members of the state general assembly a plan allowing the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to add at least one additional lane in each direction to a 25-mile stretch of Interstate 55 near Chicago using a public-private partnership (P3) agreement. IDOT is allowed to use P3 agreements only if the general assembly adopts a resolution supporting a proposed project, a state law in place since 2011. This would be the first P3 managed lane project in the state. “By using existing resources to leverage private investment, we can build the type of infrastructure...

The United Nations General Assembly has almost unanimously voted to condemn the US embargo on Cuba, in the first such resolution since US-Cuban diplomatic ties were restored earlier this year. The motion won more support than it has done in the past, with 191 members of the 193-member body voting in favour. Only the US and Israel opposed the resolution, which is non-binding.

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in an interview that the Mideast region needs to cooperate to defeat a worsening terrorist threat that has led to a “ferocious war” in Egypt and created the danger of some countries “sliding into failure.” In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press Saturday night, el-Sissi also said that Syria should not be divided after its civil war, that the Egyptian military needs to be “augmented” to defeat terrorists fighting in the Sinai and Western Desert, and that efforts should be renewed to solve the Palestinian issue and expand Egypt’s nearly 40-year-peace with Israel to...

VIRGINIA — A bill introduced in the Virginia General Assembly on Wednesday could limit high school student journalists’ ability to survey their classmates. The bill, which Del. Tony Wilt introduced, would require parents to approve any surveys asking students to provide “sexual information,” mental health information, medical information, student health risk information, information about drug use and other topics the school board deems “sensitive.” “If anyone is giving the students a survey of that nature, an attempt has to be made to notify the parents,” said Wilt, a Republican. Kelly Furnas, the executive director of the Journalism Education Association, said...