Free Republic

When Olivia Alsip travelled to the capital to protest against the inauguration of right-wing US President Donald Trump, she didn't imagine she would end the day behind bars and later face up to 80 years in prison. Thousands of people journeyed from across the US to Washington, DC, to protest on the first day of Trump's presidency, January 20. During the swearing-in, Alsip was among the more than 230 protesters arrested when officers from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) blocked off a large area and hauled off nearly everyone. "I am wondering if my 24th birthday next week will be...

The Trump administration may decide to follow the example of George W. Bush and wash its hands of the UN’s Human Rights Council. Reuters reports this morning that the US may announce as soon as tomorrow that it will withdraw from the panel unless the UN commits to serious reform, especially in its obsession with Israel at the expense of real human-rights abuses: The United States is expected to signal on Tuesday that it might withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council unless reforms are ushered in including the removal of what it sees as an “anti-Israel bias”,...

Thirty cities, three states, more than 80 university presidents, and more than 100 companies are part of a growing group intending to uphold the Paris Agreement, the climate-change accord that President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the US would be exiting. The group, called the United States Climate Alliance, is being organized by the billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg. The coalition plans to submit a plan to the United Nations that commits to greenhouse-gas limits set in the Paris Agreement, according to The New York Times. It is negotiating with the UN to form its own National Determined Contribution — a...

The White House’s decision to break with decades of U.S. policy and allow the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements is the culmination of years of bad blood between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  The decision won Obama criticism from across the political spectrum, and almost certainly wouldn't have been made if Hillary Clinton had won the presidential election. It opened him up to condemnation from President-elect Donald Trump and the right, and could lead to a battle over U.S. funding for the U.N. in Congress.  But Obama's team decided it was worth it.

The Trump Administration's budget aims to reduce the United States' annual contribution toward funding the United Nations. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, complained that "the amounts laid out in the budget aren't sufficient for us to continue the vital work of the organization." Currently, there are 193 member nations in the UN. The US has been paying 22% of the UN's $5.4 billion "core" budget and 28% of the UN's $7.9 billion "peacekeeping" budget. Trump's budget proposal would cut the US contribution by one-third and cap the US share of "peacekeeping" at 25%. Dujarric declared that "the...

Investment Banking Associate Goldman Sachs 2010 – 2013 (3 years) | San Francisco Bay Area Worked on a variety of capital raising and M&A projects and deals across several industries including technology, energy, consumer goods, biotech, industrials, and real estate. Central Intelligence Agency | National Clandestine Service Operations Officer Central Intelligence Agency | National Clandestine Service 1999 – 2010 (11 years) Managed clandestine operations related to counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, energy, political stability, and counterintelligence, while serving mostly in hostile environments. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Volunteer Refugee Resettlement Officer United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 2001 – 2001 (less than...

The United Nations complained Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s budget cuts would make it “impossible” for the organization to continue its essential work: “The figures presented would simply make it impossible for the U.N. to continue all of its essential work advancing peace, development, human rights and humanitarian assistance,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement Wednesday, according to Reuters.

A United Nations report published Wednesday highlights the legal risks that opponents say President Donald Trump faces if he does not withdraw from Paris climate agreement. The Paris Agreement could be used to force governments, including the Trump administration, “that have adopted climate-oriented laws to implement them,” reads the UN Environmental Program report on global warming litigation. The report claims that litigation “has arguably never been a more important tool to push policymakers and market participants” to fight global warming. President Donald Trump promised to “cancel” the Paris Agreement on the campaign trail, but his White House is split on...

The sex education agenda and the Catholic Church May 25, 2017May 25, 2017 11Share This address was given by Matthew McCusker, deputy international director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, on 18 May 2017 at the fourth annual Rome Life Forum, organised by Voice of the Family.On 25 September 2015 the member states of the United Nations approved the Sustainable Development Goals. These consist of 17 goals and 169 targets which nations have committed achieving by 2030. The threat to the family that is most immediately apparent when reviewing the SDGs is the promotion of abortion and...

The U.S. is the largest contributor by far to the United Nations and many other international organizations, and cuts in the administration’s proposed FY 2018 budget are designed to prod other nations to pay a bigger share, a senior State Department official said Tuesday. The administration is requesting $996.4 million for the account from which the U.N. regular budget is funded — a more than 30 percent drop from the $1.444 billion FY 2017 level. That “contributions to international organizations” (CIO) account also covers a raft of other U.N. agencies such as the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture...

RED BLUFF, Calif. — A farmer faces trial in federal court this summer and a $2.8 million fine for failing to get a permit to plow his field and plant wheat in Tehama County.

A United Nations-backed panel has publicly released a draft treaty banning the possession and use of all nuclear weapons. The draft treaty is the culmination of a sustained campaign, supported by more than 130 non-nuclear states frustrated with the sclerotic pace of disarmament, to prohibit nuclear weapons and persuade nuclear-armed states to disarm. Nine countries are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons: the US, UK, Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. None has supported the draft plan. The draft treaty obliges state parties to “never under any circumstances … develop, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or...

Report: Cash-strapped UN health agency spends about $200 million a year on travel LONDON -- The World Health Organization routinely spends about $200 million a year on travel -- far more than what it doles out to fight some of the biggest problems in public health including AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. As the cash-strapped U.N. health agency pleads for more money to fund its responses to health crises worldwide, it has also been struggling to get its own travel costs under control. Despite introducing new rules to try to curb its...

The EU foreign policy chief says Europe does “not see eye to eye” with the Trump administration on major issues such as trade, climate change and funding of U.N. agencies, but can “easily” work with the U.S. on Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Federica Mogherini spoke Saturday during a regional gathering of the World Economic Forum. Mogherini warned that threatened U.S. cuts in funding U.N. agencies “would create a major security issue worldwide, including in Europe.” …

United Nations aid agencies in Geneva were nervous before Donald Trump was elected: his rhetoric on all sorts of key issues, from migrants to torture, was deeply worrying to a community dedicated to upholding what it believes are fundamental human rights. Once candidate Trump became President Trump, the nervousness increased. The executive order on immigration seemed, to many aid workers, to betray an almost total lack of understanding and compassion for the world's most vulnerable people. Now, 100 days in, there is a sense of wariness. Although that key executive order on immigration may have been stayed by the US...

Ms. Archer, President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences Ms. Archer, President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences From Cruxnow.com: ROME - The highest-ranking woman in the Vatican said Tuesday that strengthening international organizations such as the United Nations is the only way to deal with the problems of globalization, and predicted there “will be a movement to put more and more executive action” in international agencies. Englishwoman Margaret Archer, President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, said the Church should “leave national governments where they are,” and try to influence international organizations, such as the United...

MainAll NewsMiddle EastArab League to UN: Investigate Israel Arab League to UN: Investigate Israel Arab League calls on UN to open an international inquiry in to "violations" by Israel against terrorist prisoners. Contact Editor Arutz Sheva Staff, 05/05/17 03:34 Share JailJailiStock The Arab League on Thursday called on the United Nations to open an international inquiry in to alleged "violations" by Israel against terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails. The pan-Arab body "invites the United Nations and its relevant specialized agencies to send an international commission of inquiry to Israeli prisons," representatives said in a resolution adopted Thursday and quoted by...

This week the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva warned the Trump Administration that repeal of the Affordable Care Act would violate international law. The warning came from Dainius Puras, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Puras cited Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which he says “establishes everyone’s right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, including food, medical care and necessary social services.” According to Puras, “repeal of the ACA would make the...

Oh noes, how is the U.S. media going to find a way to spin this? It was only a matter of time. President Trump and Secretary Tillerson played out the global strategy perfectly. By assembling international allies in a coalition of influence, specifically by pulling China into a close relationship with President Trump, Russia has been cast into a brutally diminished role. Secretary Tillerson’s exceptionally well received visit to the U.N. Security Council yesterday appears to have been the final straw. The international diplomacy of President Trump, Vice-President Pence, Secretary T-Rex and even Ambassador Nikki Haley has been incredibly well...

From UN reports sponsored by Arab countries to charges by international officials and personalities, Israel vehemently rejects the charges of 'apartheid' and points to the many freedoms and rights available to all citizens, including Arabs.