Free Republic

A bulldozer unloads the bodies of Palestinians killed in fighting with Israel and turned over by the Israeli military during a mass funeral in Rafah, Gaza StripThe first hearing in a landmark lawsuit against Israel enters its second day on Friday at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ). The case, filed to the top UN court by South Africa last month, claims Israel's siege of Gaza amounts to genocide and breaches the post-Holocaust 1948 Genocide Convention. The Convention gives party countries, which include both Israel and South Africa, the collective right to prevent and stop crimes of genocide. Such...

I recently attended a Kings College course called ‘Issues in Countering Terrorism’. Organised by the Centre for Defence Studies, it was designed for civil servants and professionals in Counter Terrorism. Staff from the Foreign Office, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defence and Home Office attended. Facilitating this relatively new 3 day course were senior lecturers from the Security Studies Department. The civil servants were given presentations by Kings College lecturers while Visiting Senior Research Fellows and Professors also spoke. These included those formerly holding positions such as Permanent Secretary of the Home Office and Director of GCHQ, Defence Minister and...

Artistic rendering of a HALO missile. Image: Raytheon The US Navy is developing a Hypersonic Air Launched Offensive Anti-Surface (HALO) missile to enhance its long-range anti-ship capabilities and transform its carrier warfare strategies. This month, Raytheon reported completing a technical review and prototype fit-check for the US Navy’s HALO missile prototype. Raytheon describes the HALO as a carrier-based high-speed missile enabling the Navy to operate in and control contested battlespaces in A2/AD environments and support their long-range fire strategy. The HALO missile is a crucial step in fielding the US Navy’s first anti-ship hypersonic missile, leveraging Raytheon’s expertise in hypersonics...

The second-largest foreign landowner in the U.S. is a Chinese billionaire who it has been determined is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language news reports. Chen Tianqiao, the founder, chairman and CEO of global investment firm Shanda Group, owns approximately 200,000 acres of land in Oregon, according to Land Report. Chen also has extensive ties to the Chinese government, ranging from CCP membership to executive roles in CCP-affiliated organizations, according to a DCNF review of Chinese-language media reports. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: GOP Lawmaker Urges Biden Admin To Investigate CCP-Tied...

[H/T Jane Long]X Jan 13, 2024

Thousands of protesters arrived in Washington, D.C. on Saturday for the "March on Washington for Gaza" rally to call for a ceasefire amid the Israel-Hamas war. The rally was organized by "American Muslim Task Force for Palestine" in partnership with the ANSWER Coalition. Other groups attending include American Muslims for Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine. Demonstrators unfurled a giant Palestinian flag for the march and others chanted, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” to a drum beat, according to USA Today. The day of the protest marks 100 days since the Oct. 7 attack...

The top U.S. public health agency must disclose information provided by people who experienced problems following COVID-19 vaccination, a federal court has ruled. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is being ordered to produce 7.8 million free-text entries from V-safe, one of its vaccine surveillance systems. Data from the system released under court order in 2022 showed that 25 percent of V-safe participants missed school, work, or other normal activities due to post-vaccination issues, and nearly 8 percent of participants reported seeking medical attention, such as hospitalization after receiving a shot. That data, from boxes checked by...

For many years, I have been predicting a cultural pushback against the radical left, knowing that, at a certain point, people would say, “Enough is enough.” I have documented this in particular when it comes to transgender activism, with people as diverse as Joe Rogan, Bill Maher, Richard Dawkins, J. K. Rowling, and Martina Navratilova helping to lead the way.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem sits atop the site of the Second Temple, the central place for Jewish worship before its destruction during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. One wonders if any of the people braying about the alleged “settler colonialism” of Israel ever wonder how Al-Aqsa got there. Did the Jews voluntarily erect a version of it in an eighth-century homage to multiculturalism? If not, how did the Muslims who built it come to be in Jerusalem in the first place? These are rhetorical questions, of course. The caliphate besieged Jerusalem...

A Boeing 737 plane in Japan was forced to return to its point of departure on Saturday after a crack appeared in the window of the plane’s cockpit. The All Nippon Airways (ANA) domestic flight had left the city of Sapporo en route to Toyama, before turning around for an emergency landing. No one onboard was injured, a spokesperson for the airline said. John Strickland, an expert aviation consultant said that although the crack was in the outermost of the four-layered window, cracks like it “can be pretty dangerous if not fixed,” according to the BBC. “The crack was not...

From 5 p.m. on Tuesday to 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Quito, the capital of Ecuador, was deserted. As the sun began to rise, little by little the noise of cars, people passing by and a few open businesses began to ring out. The people who left their homes to go work repeated the same word: “fear.” After several days of escalating violence due to attacks by organized criminal groups, including the live kidnapping of journalists from the TC Televisión channel in Guayaquil, citizens were trying to resume their everyday activities amid strong feelings of uncertainty. “I was panicking for my...

JUST IN: Governor Ron DeSantis gets handed a participation trophy by a man during a campaign stop in Iowa, drawing some laughs from the crowd. "Real quick before we get started. Thank you everyone. Governor DeSantis, I want to present to you this participation trophy." "Now, you're probably not gonna win the election, right? But we're proud of you for trying. He's special. He's unique and he's our little snowflake."

DEI commitment includes a recent $17 million faculty initiative, ‘identity centers,’ and more Vanderbilt University employs more than one full-time administrator for every two students ... the private Nashville university employed 3,516 full-time administrators and support staff, according to information the school filed with the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Administrators and support staff include management, student and academic affairs divisions, IT, public relations, administrative support, maintenance, legal, and other non-academic departments. In 2022, Vanderbilt’s reported full-time undergraduate student enrollment was 6,983. That amounts to 517 full-time administrators and support staff per 1,000 undergrads, or more than one for...

May 2, 1968 To All Xerox Managers: We at Xerox are among those who are compelled to accept the indictment of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders: What white Americans have never fully understood -- but what the Negro can never forget -- is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it. white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.’ We, like all other Americans, share the responsibility for a color-divided nation; and in all honesty, we need not look beyond our own doorstep to find out why. In Rochester, one of the...

Ya know, Republicans, you keep going after Hunter Biden, and it'd be a shame to see your kids' similar dirt being dragged into public. That seemed to be what Michael Steele was implying on MSNBC this morning. The screencap shows former RNC Chairman Steele pointing his finger and staring directly into the camera, as if talking to his former Republican brethren, as he says: "I'm telling you, they got their own children and relatives who have those same issues. Now, how would you like that to be splayed across the front page of the New York Times or the Washington...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a case involving whether cities in Western states can ban homeless people from sleeping in public areas. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled against anti-camping ordinances in Grants Pass, Oregon, saying it’s unconstitutional because it violates the Eighth Amendment of no "cruel and unusual punishment." Grants Pass appealed the ruling, with the backing of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose own state faces a homelessness crisis. The ruling applies to nine western states, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. *** Former MLB great and...

When another shooting happens at a place such as a school or a mall, politicians and the media are apt to claim that many hundreds of mass shootings occur each year. “Over the last year since Uvalde, our country has experienced a staggering 650 mass shootings,” President Joe Biden claimed last year. After a mass murder in Lewiston, Maine in late October, CNN said that there had already been “586 mass shootings” that year.

Bill Hayes, best known for his role as Doug Williams on the hit soap opera "Days of Our Lives," has died. He was 98. "Bill peacefully passed Friday morning surrounded by family including his wife, Susan Seaforth Hayes," his rep confirmed with Fox News Digital.

Woman beekeeper removes beehive from a houses wall and puts it (the bees and queen) into the empty wooden beehive she brought with her. She has an ultra calm voice and does not have a beekeeper's suit on https://twitter.com/playteaux/status/1746143614818828672

In a rare move, Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is receiving praise from Republicans after criticizing his own party’s stance on several issues. Fetterman has slammed the Democratic Party’s progressive “Squad” who refuse to condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. He questioned why the United States hasn’t yet destroyed Hamas, adding that every terrorist killed is "one more step" toward peace. Advertisement The Democrat has stood by his pro-Israel stance, angering members of his party who believe more should be done to help Gaza despite Hamas raping and heinously killing innocent Israelis. “I have a 12-year-old daughter,” Fetterman said....