Free Republic

A German comedian whose satirical poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has unleashed a bitter row about freedom of speech has decided to suspend his own TV show, he announced on his Facebook page on Saturday. Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday authorised criminal proceedings sought by Turkey against the popular comic Jan Boehmermann who could be convicted under the rarely-enforced section 103 of the criminal code -- insulting organs or representatives of foreign states. Merkel's decision has appalled rights bodies such as Human Rights Watch which on Saturday called on the German authorities to defend freedom of speech "even...

Erdogan Germany has a well-known period in its history where it gave in to a dictator. Things didn’t work out so well for a lot of people. Now there’s another dictator exerting his influence, apparently. This time, the dictator is from Turkey. New York Times bestselling author and Christian evangelist Joel Richardson blasted German Chancellor Angela Merkel for approving a criminal probe against German comedian Jan Böhmermann. The satirist’s supposed crime is reading a satirical poem about Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Richardson, who highlights the plight of Middle Eastern Christians in his new documentary “Global Jesus Revolution,” said...

Now will we grasp that the United States is not our friend, but a foreign country whose interests are often different from ours? President Obama's blatant intervention in our internal affairs is not a sudden breach of a soppy 'special relationship'. The USA's only real special relationship is with Saudi Arabia, a 70-year old hard pact of oil, money and power, welded together with such cynicism it out to make up gasp. Barack Obama's open desire for us to stay inside the EU is by no means the first or worst example of White House meddling here in these islands....

Boris Johnson has launched an astonishing attack on Barack Obama's 'ridiculous and weird' arguments for Britain to stay in the EU. In an outspoken assault last night, the London Mayor mocked the US President's controversial claim that Anglo-US trade would be hit by Brexit. And he stepped up his war of words with Obama over Winston Churchill, claiming that the wartime leader and the US both stood for democracy – and that the EU didn't. Brexit cheerleader Johnson spoke out as infighting broke out among senior figures in the 'Leave' campaign after Obama's devastating intervention.

June 20, 2002 A Scholar Recants on His 'Shakespeare' Discovery By WILLIAM S. NIEDERKORN n 1995 Donald Foster, a professor of English at Vassar College, made a startling case for Shakespeare's being the author of an obscure 578-line poem called "A Funeral Elegy." After a front-page article about his methods of computer analysis in The New York Times — and after his reputation was further burnished by unmasking Joe Klein as the author of "Primary Colors" — the poem was added to three major editions of Shakespeare's works. Now, in a stunning development that has set the world of Shakespeare...

Portrait of Shakespeare unveiled The portrait of Shakespeare has attracted attention A portrait of William Shakespeare thought to be the only picture made of him during his lifetime has been unveiled in Warwickshire. The painting is on show at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, to celebrate the playwright's birthday on 23 April. The trust said it was convinced the artwork, thought to date back to 1610, was an authentic portrait. But some critics have gone on record to say the picture is not of Shakespeare. The painting, known as the Cobbe portrait, was inherited by art restorer Alec Cobbe and...

A 400 year old painting thought to be the only surviving portrait of William Shakespeare from his lifetime is to be unveiled. The picture, painted in 1610, six years before the playwright's death, has been owned by the Cobbe family since the early 18th century. But for three centuries they were unsure if the subject was Britain’s greatest writer. At one point it was thought to be Sir Walter Raleigh.

FAMED PORTRAIT OF PLAYWRIGHT IS A FRAUD: ARTWORK IS 200 YEARS TOO YOUNG FOR BARDLONDON (AP) - One of the best-known portraits of William Shakespeare is a fraud, painted 200 years after the playwright's death, experts at Britain's National Portrait Gallery said Thursday. Many art authorities had long suspected that the work, known as the Flower portrait, was painted much more recently than the 1609 date on the image. The work shows Shakespeare gazing out at an angle and wearing a wide white collar. It has been widely reproduced and often is printed on the covers of his plays. Tarnya...

By Mike Collett-White LONDON (Reuters) - A 400-year-old painting previously believed to be that of a woman has been found to portray the male patron and friend of William Shakespeare, its owner said on Tuesday. The picture of the Earl of Southampton, featuring a figure with long, black curly hair, pursed red lips, an earring and a slender right hand, has prompted speculation in British media that Shakespeare was gay. "He is wearing perfectly fashionable male attire of the day, but the earring and the hair are effeminate and unusual for the 1590s," the painting's owner Alec Cobbe told Reuters....

LONDON (Reuters) - A 400-year-old painting previously believed to be that of a woman has been found to portray the male patron and friend of William Shakespeare, its owner said on Tuesday. The picture of the Earl of Southampton, featuring a figure with long, black curly hair, pursed red lips, an earring and a slender right hand, has prompted speculation in British media that Shakespeare was gay. "He is wearing perfectly fashionable male attire of the day, but the earring and the hair are effeminate and unusual for the 1590s," the painting's owner Alec Cobbe told Reuters. He said that...

Ananova Breaking Wire-What the Papers Say-The London Daily SunSHAKESQUEERMe thinks new evidence has emerged that doth suggest William Shakespeare might have been gay.I RULETony Blair delivered an astonishing slapdown to Gordon Brown yesterday by stressing that Britain had elected him to run the country not the chancellorStory Filed: 00:14 Monday, April 22, 2002 Greenwich Mean Time

President Barack Obama boasted of his legacy during a town hall in Britain, asserting that he single- handedly saved the world during his presidency. “Saving the world economy from a Great Depression — that was pretty good,” Obama bragged when asked by a student in London what he wanted his legacy to be. He recalled that when he visited London in 2009, the world economy was in a “freefall” because of irresponsible behavior of financial institutions around the world. “For us to be able to mobilize the world’s community, to take rapid action, to stabilize the financial markets, and then...

This is the Britain that David Cameron and Theresa May wanted. Now they have it.

Britain’s republican movement has revealed it plans to mount a campaign for a referendum on the future of the monarchy when the Queen dies. Republic has been nervous of appearing callous over the Queen’s mortality, because it sees the popularity of the Queen as crucial to public support for the institution. But on the eve of the Queen’s 90th birthday, Republic’s chief executive, Graham Smith, suggested that, when it happens, the Queen’s death will mark a turning point in public attitudes. “The Queen’s birthday reminds us that support for the monarchy is bound up with support for the Queen,” he...

The US President warned the UK would be “at the back of the queue” for a trade deal with America if it quit Brussels. But his threat provoked outrage and scorn from pro-Brexit campaigners, who dismissed it as yet another scaremongering ploy from the pro-EU lobby. Mr Obama, who will no longer be in office when decisions on a trade deal are made, delivered a lecture to the British people on why he thinks it is in the UK’s, America’s and the world’s best interests for Britain to vote to stay in the EU on June 23. He weighed into...

US President Barack Obama told Britons on Friday he loved Winston Churchill, rebuffing suggestions that he had disrespected the wartime leader because of a grudge against Britain linked to his Kenyan ancestry. Obama was visiting London to press Britons to vote to stay in the European Union, and the Churchill issue arose after London Mayor Boris Johnson, who is campaigning for an "Out" vote, brought it up in an article criticizing Obama. "I love Winston Churchill, I love the guy," Obama said when asked at a news conference about Johnson's article.

FreeRepublic March 23, 2009

President Barack Obama told Britain today that it would have to 'go to the back of the queue' if it leaves the European Union, then tries to negotiate its own trade deal with the United States. A US-UK trade agreement is not going to happen 'any time soon,' Obama said during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron. ‘Not because we don’t have a special relationship but because given the heavy lift on any trade agreement, us having access to a big market with a lot of countries rather than trying to do piecemeal trade agreements, which...

President Obama looks set to wade into the contentious debate in the United Kingdom over whether or not the nation should remain a member of the European Union – and some Brits are angry at the president’s intrusion into a delicate UK issue ahead of a major vote. Obama will arrive in London late Thursday for a three-day trip. On Friday he will meet Prime Minister David Cameron -- who is reportedly keen to get Obama’s backing ahead of the June 23 referendum, in which Britons will choose to remain or leave the European Union. Cameron is in a difficult...

LONDON — President Barack Obama faced a furious backlash on his visit to the U.K. Friday, accused of hypocrisy by lawmakers — including the mayor of London — after intervening in Britain's national referendum on the European Union. The president was accused of an "incoherent" and "perverse" intervention in the country's acrimonious debate after urging British voters to remain in the political bloc. Mayor Boris Johnson, who is also the leader of the anti-EU campaign, also speculated that "part-Kenyan" Obama was expressing an "ancestral dislike of the British empire." Britons will vote in a June 23 referendum on whether to...