Free Republic

Both of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson's children are not "working royals", or members of the royal family who perform public engagements full-time, like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. So although Princess Beatrice still attends events like Royal Ascot and Trooping the Color, she has no obligation or intention to match the 507 engagements Prince Charles conducted last year as the future king. The distinction also means she no longer received full-time security as of 2011. Instead, Princess Beatrice has used her BA in History from Goldsmiths to work in finance and consulting. Princess Eugenie used her art history...

The mother of a New Jersey student with Down syndrome who was forced to leave the senior prom early has filed suit against the school district, claiming her daughter was the victim of discrimination due to her disability. The suit was filed by Katherine Trusky in Somerset County Superior Court on Dec. 9 and argues that Hillsborough High School student, identified as L.D., was “humiliated, singled out, and forced to leave the Senior Prom early while other, “neurotypical,” students were allowed to continue.” The lawsuit goes on to say that the memorable night that L.D. and her friends were meant...

Chillier Relations between the Vatican and Iran, Even before the Killing of Suleimani Six days after the killing in Baghdad of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani (in the photo, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei), there was great anticipation over what Francis would say in the traditional beginning of the year speech to the diplomatic corps.The pope expressed himself in this regard with these words, revisiting what he said before at the Angelus of January 5:“Particularly troubling are the signals coming from the entire region [of the Middle East] following the heightening of tensions between Iran and the United States, which risk above...

As PJM’s Matt Margolis noted Wednesday, that paragon of patriotism Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Global Islamic Umma) “was seen laughing and joking around during a House Progressive Caucus press conference about Iran at the same time Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was talking about U.S. casualties in Iraq. In addition to laughing, at one point, Omar can be seen talking to Rep. Rashida Tlaib behind her, and appears to be joking and smiling, even when she turns back towards the camera.” But Omar wasn’t nearly as amused when, as Fox News reported Friday, “a northern Minnesota county on Tuesday night opted to...

https://media.farsnews.com/Uploaded/Files/Video/1398/10/21/13981021000439_360P.mp4 "When I was convinced that this had happened, I really wished I had died, wishing I had died and not witnessed such an incident," the Army Corps Commander said. According to Fars Defense News Agency, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Air Force Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, at a news conference to describe the size of the incident, targeted the Ukrainian airliner: I heard about the missile strikes against US bases, and when I realized that this had happened, I really wished I had died, wishing I hadn't seen such an accident. He added: "We have sacrificed our...

Iranian media has reported that British Ambassador to Iran Robert Macaire was detained and interrogated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. Macaire was released after a short time...

An Iranian commander has taken responsibility for downing a Ukrainian International Airlines civilian plane earlier this week, leading to the deaths of 176 people. Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh on Saturday said the plane was downed due to "human error" and that his unit accepts "full responsibility" for the mistake. In a statement, Hajizadeh said the plane few close to a sensitive military site which belonged to elite Revolutionary Guard units, and that it therefore led led to "heightened sensitivity" by the air defense units. In a Saturday address broadcast by state TV, Hajizadeh said, "Iran's Revolutionary...

The Department of Justice doesn't want the Supreme Court to fast-track a case that could result in Obamacare being thrown out ahead of the presidential election, despite its position that the healthcare law should be abolished. If the court agrees with the Trump administration, then President Trump and Republicans will be spared the possibility of having to come up with an Obamacare replacement in the middle of campaigning. ...

What began as vigils for the students killed when Iran’s Revolutionary Guard mistakenly shot down an airliner turned into large anti-government protests Saturday, with thousands of students chanting “Death to Liars!” and calling for the resignation of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. ... “I wish I had died, and I wouldn’t have seen such an incident,” said Iranian Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh, the Guards’ aerospace commander, at a press conference. But his claim that a “request had been made to clear the sky from civil flights at that time, but it did not happen due to reservations” infuriated Ukraine...

House Democrats voted against a motion to recognize unborn babies as “vulnerable populations” Friday. Republican Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers presented a motion to amend H.R. 535, a bill requiring the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to declare certain chemicals as hazardous and take “vulnerable populations” into account when developing drinking water standards. Rodgers’ motion suggested protections for unborn children exposed to these chemicals and aimed to include unborn children in “vulnerable populations.” “Republicans today stood for the most vulnerable among us – the unborn,” House Leader Kevin McCarthy told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It is sickening that...

I set foot in Africa for the first time in 2017. As Special Advisor to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, I have visited Kenya and Rwanda. Having done a lot of research before leaving, I thought I knew what to expect – and hoped to get out of my comfort zone...To my surprise, it was not much different from what I had experienced at home in China. ...The digital revolution has the potential to bring tremendous prosperity to the continent, provided it has the entrepreneurs and businesses capable of carrying it out. Skeptics may well point to...

Russian President Vladimir Putin, asked on Saturday whether mercenaries known as the Wagner Group were fighting in Libya, said that if there are Russians in Libya, they are not representing the Russian state, nor are they paid by the state. Russian private military contractors have clandestinely fought in support of Russian forces in Syria and Ukraine, Reuters and other media have previously reported. The contractors are recruited by a private military group known as Wagner Group whose members are mostly ex-service personnel. The Russian state denies it uses mercenaries abroad. During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel...

Numerous videos of protests in Iran over the government shootdown of a passenger jet over Tehran that killed 176 people have been posted online Saturday. Translations posted with the video say the protesters are demanding the resignation of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The protesters were also heard to be chanting, “Our enemy is here, they tell us lie by saying it is America.” (video and tweets)

President Trump called out FBI Director Christopher Wray on Saturday morning for his weak response to FISA abuse and the illegal spying on Trump’s 2016 campaign. FBI Director Chris Wray announced that the FBI’s response to the agency’s FISA Abuse and the criminal spying on the Trump campaign will result in extra training. He sent out out a training video. And no one will be disciplined for the criminal acts.

Months before a whistleblower complaint that would spark the Democrat effort for impeachment, a shadowy liberal group founded and staffed by Obama administration alums and former Democrat congressional staffers launched an outside investigation into whether President Trump’s allies were seeking “foreign interference” from Ukraine in the 2020 elections. The group, American Oversight, began investigating the issue in May — more than two months before the “whistleblower” filed a complaint alleging Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals.” The group’s purpose is to...

With the Republican-majority Senate preparing to take up his impeachment trial next week, President Trump said Saturday that Americans want Congress to “move on to other things.” “Now the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, are asking @senatemajldr Mitch McConnell to do the job that they were unable to do,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “They proved NOTHING but my total innocence in the House, despite the most unfair & biased hearings in the history of Congress. Now they demand fairness!” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she’s finally ready to send the two articles of impeachment to the Senate next week for...

German climate blogger Snow Fan here presents some background on Australian bush fires.  It turns out that the 1974/75 bush fires were considerably larger in area than the 2019/20 bush fires we have been witnessing.The Australian bush fires of 2019/20 have seen an area as big as southern Germany (see above). But in 1974/75, they covered an area as large as France and Spain combined! Source: www.wetteronline.de. Snow fan writes: On the completely exaggerated climate alarm in the German media on the current bush fires in Australia, a pleasantly objective report from WetterOnline: ‘In the summer of 1974/1975, an area in...

Despite the drubbing that marijuana stocks took in 2019, it was still a year filled with cannabis firsts. We witnessed Canada become the first industrialized country to launch derivative pot products and watched Illinois do what New Jersey and New York failed to do -- legalize recreational weed while also passing an expungement clause for those people with previous cannabis possession or use convictions. The current year also looks as if it'll be filled with marijuana milestones. For instance, Mexico should become the third country in the world to give adult-use cannabis the green light by no later than the...

If the thought that your pet is more precious to you than anything else has ever crossed your mind, we are almost certain this video captured in China might make you reconsider your priorities. As much as we all love our pets, most of us probably wouldn’t risk our child or any other young kid just to get our beloved pet to safety. Well, this grandma has her priorities in quite a different order, apparently. When the reckless lady noticed her cat sitting on a ledge one floor lower, the best idea for rescuing the feline that popped into her...

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen won a second term by a landslide in the island’s presidential election on Jan. 11, in a victory seen as a rejection of Chinese regime encroachment. Tsai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won by a margin of around 20 percent—by more than 2.6 million votes—against her main opponent, Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomingtang (KMT) party. Supporters of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen celebrate the preliminary results at a rally outside the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan Jan. 11, 2020. (Reuters/Tyrone Siu)The election is widely viewed as a referendum on whether Taiwan should pursue...