Free Republic

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump said Wednesday that an Arizona law that criminalizes nearly all abortions goes too far and called on Arizona lawmakers to change it, while also defending the overturning of Roe v. Wade that cleared states to ban the procedure. “It’ll be straightened out and as you know, it’s all about states’ rights,” the former president told supporters and journalists after landing in Atlanta for a fundraiser. “It’ll be straightened out, and I’m sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason and that’ll be taken care of, I think, very...

In the arts these days, they insist that context is everything. So what is one to make of this vile picture, of Hamas terrorists from the October 7 massacre proudly posing with their 'kill' on the bed of a pickup truck, the mangled, mutilated, body of a 22-year old woman, proudly preening and posing for their trusted photographer from the Associated Press? Shame on @RJI for awarding @AP 'Picture of the Year' award, of this image, which their Hamas-embedded photographer took of Shani Louk, as she was murdered, violated and thrown on back of pick-up truck! You must be so...

A Russian border region being pounded by Ukrainian shelling and drones is expanding its closure of schools and colleges amid a major evacuation plan, authorities announced Wednesday, as Kyiv’s forces extend their campaign of long-range strikes that aim to put the Kremlin under pressure.

It was neither the place nor the time for a proper goodbye, said Omar Dirawi. Not here, in this dusty field strewn with dead people wrapped in blankets and zipped up in body bags. And not now, as Israeli airstrikes crashed around him for the third week, erasing more of his neighborhood and sundering hundreds of families and friendships. Yet on this October week in Gaza’s central town of Zawaideh, the 22-year-old Palestinian photojournalist buried 32 members of his family who were killed in Israeli air raids last Sunday. Dirawi’s aunts, uncles and cousins from Gaza City had heeded Israeli...

Attorneys who’ve been defending MyPillow chief executive and election denier Mike Lindell against defamation lawsuits by voting machine companies are seeking court permission to quit, saying he owes them unspecified millions of dollars and can’t pay the millions more that he’ll owe in legal expenses going forward. Attorney Andrew Parker wrote in documents filed in federal court on Thursday that his firm and a second firm representing MyPillow in lawsuits by Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems can’t afford what it would cost to represent Lindell and MyPillow through the rest of the litigation. Continuing to defend him would put the...

Former President Donald Trump now says he won’t be holding a news conference next week to unveil what he claims is new “evidence” of fraud in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election — even though no fraud has ever been substantiated — citing the advice of lawyers as he prepares to face trial in two criminal cases that stem from his election lies. No compelling evidence of the wide-scale fraud Trump alleges has emerged in the two-and-a-half years since the election in Georgia or elsewhere, despite Trump’s baseless claims. Republican officials in the state have long said he lost fairly and three...

A new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll out Wednesday found that former President Donald Trump is increasing his grip on the Republican Party but still distancing a majority of the American electorate. The poll found that 63% of Republican voters “now say they want the former president to run again,” noted an AP summary. The strong support from inside the GOP marked an increase from the same poll last April, which showed 55% of Republican voters wanted to see Trump on the party’s ticket again. “Seven in 10 Republicans now have a favorable opinion of Trump, an...

Former President Donald Trump says the footage of the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis police officers is “horrible” and that the attack “never should have happened.”Trump says beating of Nichols ‘never should have happened’By MEG KINNARD and MICHELLE L. PRICEAssociated PressThe Associated PressCOLUMBIA, S.C.COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Saturday said the footage of the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis police officers is “horrible” and that the attack “never should have happened.”“I thought it was terrible. He was in such trouble. He was just being pummeled. Now that should never have...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Fighting back tears and finally given the chance to confront conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the parents of a 6-year-old killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting described being put through a “living hell” of death threats, harassment and ongoing trauma over the last decade caused by Jones using his media platforms to push claims that it was all a hoax. The parents led a day of charged testimony that included the judge scolding the bombastic Jones for not being truthful with some of what he said under oath. Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The social media posts are of a distinct type. They hint darkly that the CIA or the FBI are behind mass shootings. They traffic in racist, sexist and homophobic tropes. They revel in the prospect of a “white boy summer.” White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run by young men, are building thriving, macho communities across social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok, evading detection with coded hashtags and innuendo. Their snarky memes and trendy videos are riling up thousands of followers on divisive issues including abortion, guns, immigration and LGBTQ rights. ... They signal...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are processing the nightmare of the slaughter of children in Texas, the racist murders in Buffalo, New York, and the other numbingly repeated scenes of carnage in the United States. They’re contending with what feels like highway robbery at the gas pump, they’re nagged by a virus that the world can’t shake, and they’re split into two hostile camps over politics and culture — the twin pillars of the nation’s foundation. They’ve already been through two set-piece dramas of presidential impeachment — indeed, through the wringer on all things Donald Trump. Now, beginning in prime time...

ATLANTA (AP) - The Republican head of Georgia’s election board said Tuesday a recently released film alleging ballots were illegally collected and dropped off during the 2020 presidential election falsely suggests there were tens of thousands of illegitimate votes in the state. Still, State Election Board Chairman Matt Mashburn promised a “fair” investigation of its claims. “It’s not going to be a witch hunt,” he said at a meeting of the board. “It’s going to be done soberly and with great care by people who know what they’re doing.” The movie, called “2000 Mules,” paints an ominous picture suggesting Democrat-aligned...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Signs of Republican resistance are mounting over a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, a reemergence of the Trump-led isolationist wing of the GOP that's coming at a crucial moment as the war against the Russian invasion deepens.The Senate voted late Monday to advance the Ukraine aid bill 81-11, pushing it toward President Joe Biden's desk by week's end to become law. But more vocal objections from Republicans in Congress are sending warning signs after what has been rare and united support for Ukraine as it desperately battles hostile Russia. All 11 no votes came from Republican...

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Joe Biden talks about his decision to run against President Donald Trump in 2020, the story always starts with Charlottesville. He says it was the men with torches shouting bigoted slogans that drove him to join what he calls the “battle for the soul of America.” Now Biden is facing the latest deadly manifestation of hatred after a white supremacist targeted Black people with an assault rifle at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and left 10 people dead, the most lethal racist attack since he took office. The president and first lady Jill Biden are...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Florida utilities would gradually increase their electricity to 100% renewable by 2050 under a proposed rule unveiled Thursday by the state’s agriculture commissioner. The proposed rule is an outgrowth of a lengthy court battle involving dozens of young people who claim Florida is violating their constitutional rights by continuing to promote use of fossil fuels that drive climate change. Similar lawsuits have been filed in other states. The rule announced by Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a Democratic candidate for governor this year, came following pressure from young people represented by the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust...

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron and extreme-right politician Marine Le Pen voiced two radically opposed visions of Europe on Tuesday: one resolutely advocating for the bloc of 27 nations, the other defending her French nationalist mottos. If Macron falters in France’s April 24 presidential runoff between the two, the far-right could be at the helm of the European Union, an abhorrent idea to most leaders in the bloc. Experts say a win for Le Pen would have immense repercussions on the functioning of the EU. Not only would her coming to power damage the democratic values and...

RENO, Nev. (AP) — In a rare emergency move, the U.S government temporarily declared a northern Nevada toad endangered Monday, saying a geothermal power plant in the works could result in its extinction. The Fish and Wildlife Service announced it is formally proposing a rule to list the Dixie Valley toad as an endangered species subject to 60 days of public comment under the Endangered Species Act’s normal rulemaking process. But it said the emergency listing goes into effect immediately and will continue for eight months while more permanent protections are considered for the toad at the only place it...

After Donald Trump was caught on video bragging about sexually assaulting women, Mike Pence stayed on his ticket. As the coronavirus ravaged the U.S., the then-vice president praised the administration’s response. And after a violent mob threatened his life during an attack on the U.S. Capitol, Pence rejected entreaties to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. But after years of being a subservient sidekick, Pence is beginning to distance himself from Trump as he takes increasingly overt steps toward a White House bid of his own. Last month, Pence called out Trump by name, saying his former...

The future of a major liquified natural gas facility proposed for northeastern Pennsylvania was thrown into question Monday after its developer settled a legal challenge brought by environmental activists. A subsidiary of New Fortress Energy Inc. agreed to pull the plug on its proposed LNG plant in Wyalusing — at least for now — in an agreement with a coalition of environmental groups that filed suit seeking to overturn the company’s air emissions permit. The $800 million plant was intended to liquify million of gallons of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale gas field per day, with the liquified gas...

The signs are abundant of how Ukraine frustrated Vladimir Putin’s hopes for a swift victory, and how Russia's military proved far from ready for the fight. A truck carrying Russian troops crashes, its doors blown open by a rocket-propelled grenade. Foreign-supplied drones target Russian command posts. Orthodox priests in trailing vestments parade Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag in defiance of their Russian captors in the occupied city of Berdyansk. Russia has lost hundreds of tanks, many left charred or abandoned along the roads, and its death toll is on a pace to outstrip that of the country’s previous military campaigns....