Free Republic

State Department pushes back on signature Trump admin foreign policy decision The Biden administration is walking back the United States' historic recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the contested Golan Heights region along Israel's northern border, a significant blow to the Jewish state and one of the Trump administration's signature foreign policy decisions. The Trump administration declared the territory—seized by Israel from Syria in 1967 and later annexed by the country—to be wholly part of the Jewish state in 2019. Then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo took a trip to the area in 2020 and reaffirmed that America formally abandoned a decades-long...

The University of California Board of Regents on Wednesday tightened UC’s rules on affiliations with hospitals that impose religious restrictions on care. The policy approved almost unanimously by the board places greater limits than before on interference by religious authorities with the medical judgments of UC physicians practicing at sectarian hospitals. The policy states that UC physicians practicing at a sectarian hospital must be permitted to provide any treatment at that location to a patient who can’t be safely transferred to another facility — even if the treatment would violate religious restrictions. Affiliated hospitals will have until Dec. 31, 2023,...

Jared Huffman (D-CA) said that if bishops ‘rebuke’ Democrats for violating Church teaching on abortion, ‘a ‘rebuke’ of [the Church’s] tax-exempt status may be in order.’June 24, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A Democratic congressman from California suggested that the Catholic Church ought to lose its tax-exempt status if the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) decides to follow Church law and deny Communion to pro-abortion politicians like President Joe Biden. In a June 18 tweet, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) said, “If they’re going to politically weaponize religion by ‘rebuking’ Democrats who support women’s reproductive choice, then a ‘rebuke’ of their tax-exempt...

Democrats may use their massive “infrastructure” plan to bribe local governments to essentially abolish suburbs, by making grants contingent upon towns and counties allowing apartments in any neighborhood, including those currently limited to single-family homes. That creates two scenarios, both of which benefit Democrats seeking power: If jurisdictions want to preserve a small-town feel, they must turn down the money, meaning the massive infusion of taxpayer dollars turns into a bonanza for Democratic-dominated cities, while leaving others out. Or if centrist suburbs give in to the temptation to take the money, they would essentially be signing a contract to become...

At least 12 graves were desecrated. The offenders’ young age is a source of concern. The motives for the desecration are not yet known, but radical indoctrination in school has not been ruled out. The city’s mayor expressed his solidarity, but local Christians are bitter.Jakarta (AsiaNews) – About a dozen elementary school children vandalised a Christian cemetery in Solo (Surakarta), central Java province. The incident occurred last Monday, and the young age of the offenders is a cause for concern. In the past, incidents of this kind against places of worship or burial usually involved adults, hooligans or Islamic extremists....

Major British retailer Marks & Spencer (M & S) has launched a new lingerie range inspired by George Floyd. This is a bit like Oxford University launching a new degree course inspired by Beavis and Butthead. It’s so totally meaningless and off-brand that it will make absolutely zero sense to its core audience. It’s the purest woke gesture politics. In a video about the launch of the retail giant’s Nothing Neutral About It range, M & S Lingerie Director Laura Charles says: The horrific death of George Floyd and the global conversation on race, equality and unconscious bias really spurred...

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told members of Congress on Wednesday that there is concern in the department regarding conspiracy theories that former President Trump will be reinstated in August, Politico reports. Sources familiar with the exchange said top DHS counterterrorism official John Cohen shared these concerns while speaking in a members only briefing with the House Homeland Security Committee. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) reportedly asked Cohen how DHS is monitoring the spread of disinformation and conspiracy as well as how they fuel violence, specifically pointing to the Trump reinstatement conspiracy theory that has become popular among QAnon...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is an experienced lawyer, skilled in the great game of words. She made a good living craftily parsing words at one of the city’s top law firms. Law firm politics, played on carpets in board rooms is one thing. But Chicago politics played on the concrete and asphalt of the blood-spattered Chicago Way is another. And as a rookie mayor clearly overwhelmed by the job, she’s publicly proven herself to be woefully inept at leadership, crisis management and the dark arts of politics. She has lost the city. She lost it when she failed to stop...

The European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF) a group of European parliamentarians committed to compelling the recognition of abortion as a “human right” world-wide, is preparing a major political coup aimed at discrediting reputable Christian and human rights organizations which the group describes as “religious extremists” allegedly committed “to roll back human rights in sexuality and reproduction.” Last week, EPF presented an “investigative report” called “Tip of the Iceberg: Religious Extremist Funders against Human Rights for Sexuality and Reproductive Health in Europe 2009 – 2018,” with the intention to influence a vote that would openly denounce pro-life...

TOMS RIVER, NJ – We’re from the government…and we’re here to help you…get vaccinated. If you haven’t been vaccinated and you live at the Jersey Shore, you can expect a state official to come knocking on your door this week. It’s part of a new COVID-19 vaccination drive announced by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Governor Phil Murphy this week said he has created a “COVID-19 Community Corps” and will knock on 134,000 doors and make 60,000 phone calls to shore residents in Jackson, Middletown, Howell, Atlantic City, Toms River, Brick, and Jackson. “We’re not stopping,” Murphy said. The COVID-19...

President Joe Biden said Thursday he would not sign a bipartisan infrastructure deal with moderate Republican senators without an additional partisan funding package for entitlements. “I control that. If they don’t come, I’m not signing it. Real simple,” Biden said, when reporters asked how he planned to get both measures through Congress at the same time.

"In the event you doubt the veracity of these men, Kirsch offers,“If you can prove that the NIH and WHO got their treatment guidelines right, you could win $2M”. He points out, thus far, no takers.

June 24, 2021 For immediate releaseForty-Eight Senators Urge ATF to Withdraw Pistol Brace Ban RuleSpringfield, VA – Forty-eight Senators are demanding in a letter that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) withdraw its Proposed Rule to ban stabilizing pistol braces — a move that the Congressional Research Service reported could affect roughly 40,000,000 firearms and turn millions of gun owners into felons.The letter states, “ATF seems to believe that re-characterizing millions of pistols as SBRs is no big deal because the agency kindly offers gun owners what it deems to be plenty of means of complying....

The latest political development in Sweden that makes a new election more likely, the Kremlin comments on yesterday's confrontation between a British destroyer and Russia's military and why the Dutch Prime Minister wants to bring Hungary "to its knees" but first... Half of the 891 COVID-19 cases in Israel in the last month involve: "fully vaccinated people"... Effective Sunday Israel reinstating its indoor mask order. The recent uptick in COVID-19 cases many of them identified as "Delta Variant" cited... French Premier Jean Castex visiting the Department of Landes in southwestern France where COVID-19 cases are said to be surging with...

In a fit of romantic rage, a 20-year-old woman in Louisiana allegedly recruited a squad of teenage boys to murder her ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend. But the plot went off the rails at the last second, according to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office. Mykia Tyson is said to have driven the four boys she enlisted to the new boyfriend’s house in Lacombe, Louisiana, in early June, but when the proposed hitmen arrived, the teenager meant to shoot the boyfriend bailed on the murder plot. At the last second, 19-year-old Delester Magee intentionally missed the target, firing shots into the side...

I used to think corporate bureaucracy was bad because it’s inefficient. That’s true, but it’s not the biggest problem. Rather, there’s a new invisible force at work in the highest ranks of corporate America, one far more nefarious. It’s the defining scam of our time — one that robs you of not only your money, but your voice and your identity. The con works like a magic trick, summed up well by Michael Caine’s character in the opening monologue in Christopher Nolan’s movie “The Prestige”: “Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called...

Lawmakers announced Thursday that they had reached a deal on the outlines of a federal police reform measure hours before the Senate was scheduled to depart Washington for a two-week recess. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Scott (R-SC) and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) said in a statement that they had agreed to a framework “[a]fter months of working in good faith.” “There is still more work to be done on the final bill, and nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” the statement added. “Over the next few weeks we look forward to continuing our work toward...

The Telegraph reported that this week’s figures mean coronavirus deaths account for just 0.8 percent of total deaths in England and Wales.. Data from Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that deaths involving influenza and pneumonia in England and Wales vastly outstripped those related to COVID-19 in the week ending June 11, the date of their most recent figures. The latest data from the ONS confirmed a total of 84 deaths related to the novel coronavirus, one of the lowest recorded weekly levels since the onset of the crisis in March 2020. At the same time, deaths in...

New Yorkers will be able to designate their sex as “female,” “male” or “X” on driver's licenses and birth certificates under a law that Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed Thursday. Nonbinary New Yorkers sued in March arguing the state was discriminating against them by failing to provide the “X” option to indicate nonbinary, intersex, undesignated or other. The new law will take effect in 180 days. New Yorkers will no longer have to publish their name change, address, birth place and birth date in a newspaper, which the previous law requires within 60 days of a name change. They could also...

Judge Brian Amero has ruled in favor of Fulton County election workers in a devastating ruling that jeopardizes whether the county’s election audit can proceed. The legal determination was made on Thursday night. “A judge dismissed most of a lawsuit Thursday seeking a deep inspection of Fulton County absentee ballots from last year’s presidential election, a review pursued by voters trying to find fraud,” the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported. “Superior Court Judge Brian Amero’s ruling jeopardizes the prospects for the ballot inspection to continue, though a plaintiff in the lawsuit said he believes it will soon move forward,” the report added....