Free Republic

I believe life begins at conception. If I lived in Florida, I would support the state’s heartbeat bill and vote against the referendum seeking to liberalize Florida’s abortion laws. I supported the Dobbs decision and I support well-drafted abortion restrictions at the state and federal levels. I was a pro-life lawyer who worked for pro-life legal organizations. While I want prospective parents to be able to use I.V.F. to build their families, I do not believe that unused embryos should simply be discarded — thrown away as no longer useful.But I’m going to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 and...

"It's not easy to stay here—more for my life and my safety; I can't try over and over again with the same result." Mohammed Idris, who owns Bash café, in south Belfast, says he will not reopen after his business was set alight during violent protests. Disorder broke out after an anti-immigration protest in the city on Saturday. Mr Idris has told BBC News NI his businesses have been targeted before, saying his shop on Sandy Row was targeted last year. "My computer shop was completely damaged just like this café. This café was a hope, a place for a...

Legal analysts are accusing Judge Aileen Cannon of pro-Donald Trump bias after indefinitely suspending his classified documents case. Cannon, a Trump appointee, indefinitely postponed the trial on Tuesday, citing legal disputes around classified evidence. Cannon said there were eight outstanding substantive pending motions for her to rule on and predicted this will take until at least late July. It is unknown whether the case will begin before the November 2024 presidential election. If elected, Trump has a number of options to kill the trial, including pardoning himself or appointing a favorable attorney general to drop the charges. Cannon is overseeing...

(Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview published on Friday that if Ukraine does not get promised U.S. military aid blocked by disputes in Congress, its forces will have to retreat "in small steps"."If there is no U.S. support, it means that we have no air defence, no Patriot missiles, no jammers for electronic warfare, no 155-milimetre artillery rounds," Zelenskiy told the Washington Post."It means we will go back, retreat, step by step, in small steps," he said. "We are trying to find some way not to retreat."Shortages of munitions, he said, meant "you have to do with...

WASHINGTON — In ruling that states cannot kick Donald Trump off the ballot, the Supreme Court placed significant limits on any effort — including by Congress — to prevent the former president from returning to office. Should Trump win the presidential election and lawmakers then seek to not certify the results and prevent him from taking office because he "engaged in insurrection" under Section 3 of the Constitution's 14th Amendment, the decision could foreclose that action. It is on that point that the court — notionally unanimous in ruling for Trump despite its 6-3 conservative majority — appeared to be...

A lack of foreign aid deliveries from Western allies makes life “very difficult” for Ukraine’s fighters, a despairing President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Monday. Zelensky and other officials have repeatedly expressed frustration at the slowness of promised aid deliveries even as European countries struggle to find enough stocks to satisfy Kyiv’s demands. In Washington aid worth $60 billion is currently waiting to be approved by Congress, much to the anger of Ukraine’s leadership that wants the U.S. taxpayer funds released as a matter of urgency.

Ukraine has warned it is already being forced to downsize some military operations because of a drop-off in foreign aid. Top general Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said troops faced ammunition shortages along the "entire front line", creating a "big problem" for Kyiv. It comes as billions of dollars of US and EU aid have been held up amid political wrangles. Ukraine said it hoped to boost its own ammunition industry with western help. But it relies heavily on western supplies, particularly on deliveries of long-range missiles and air defence systems, to fight occupying Russian forces. Gen Tarnavskyi told the Reuters news agency...

Ilion, which is a village in Herkimer County, New York, will be losing its facility in March 2024 according to letters sent to union leaders obtained by the Utica Observer-Dispatch. It can’t be understated how big of a deal this is: Ilion is the literal birthplace of Remington, as the company was founded there. They’ve been manufacturing guns there since 1816… which is well over 200 years worth of history. And yes, the facility closure will involve layoffs and swathes of people losing their jobs. As to who should shoulder the blame for this abrupt closure, local Republican lawmakers put...

Israel bombed areas of southern Gaza where it had told Palestinians to flee to ahead of an expected ground invasion, killing dozens of people on Tuesday in attacks it says are targeted at Hamas militants that rule the besieged territory. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said at least 500 people were killed in an explosion Tuesday that it said was caused by an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City Hospital. If confirmed, the attack on the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008.

After a year and a half of war, Ukraine’s leaders now have a new reason to worry: Mounting political chaos in America is threatening to derail their supply of money and weapons. Days after lawmakers shelved a vital U.S. plan to send billions of dollars in aid to Kyiv, U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by his own Republican Party colleagues. Aid to Ukraine was named as one of the reasons. In Kyiv, officials are at a loss as to what might happen next. Their staunchest military ally suddenly looks unreliable, despite assurances from President Biden and others the...

Now things will really change! Eight members of the House Republican caucus combined with House Democrats to remove a Republican Speaker for the crime of … [checks notes] … allegedly working with Democrats. And now, the House will grind to a halt while Republicans pick the next Speaker, who will still have to work with a Senate run by Democrats and a Democrat in the White House to accomplish anything other than investigations. Which, by the way, Kevin McCarthy already had operating. (snip) So what comes next? Probably more epic faceplanting. (snip) The most likely way out of this impasse...

Former President Donald Trump will not head to trial next month alongside two of his co-defendants whose cases in the sweeping Georgia election interference case were severed. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee granted motions from Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell to sever their criminal cases from Trump and 16 other co-defendants.(Snip) For Trump and the 16 other co-defendants, McAfee set a schedule requiring all motions to be filed by Dec. 1.

On July 1, a new law took effect in Florida: SB 1718/Chapter No. 2023-40. This law clamps down on illegal immigration by, among other things, requiring all businesses employing 25 or more workers to use E-Verify to confirm that an employee is legal to work. The New York Times sent Miriam Jordan to the Sunshine State to see what’s going on. Her article, published August 4, is entitled, "New Florida Immigration Rules Start to Strain Some Businesses." It says “some immigrant communities” are afraid. That is, the illegals themselves and those who depend on them. Such an article is incomplete...

Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week that former President Trump’s taunts regarding his last name are “petty” and “juvenile.” “I think it’s so petty. I think it’s so juvenile. I don’t think that’s what voters want,” DeSantis told Jack Heath on “The Pulse of New Hampshire.” Trump recently mocked DeSantis for the pronunciation of his last name and referred to the Florida governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious,” a nickname the former president frequently uses. DeSantis told Heath that Trump’s behavior is one of the reasons why he lost the 2020 presidential election.

A former federal prosecutor said Saturday that former President Donald Trump's post on Truth Social sharing details of his arrest could affect his chances of getting bail and his conditions for release. Trump claimed on his Truth Social account that the Manhattan DA's office will arrest him on Tuesday - and branded the probe 'corrupt and highly political', calling the alleged hush money payment an 'old and fully debunked fairy-tale.' Glenn Kirschner, an MSNBC legal analyst, went on the network Saturday and compared the all-caps rant to his posts leading up to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 and...

When LGBTQ Floridians, their families and their supporters arrive in the state capital Monday to start two days of what organizers are calling pride, passion and resistance, they’re more likely to encounter a brick wall of opposition than a welcome mat and an open door. In the last two years, the rhetoric and policies flowing from Gov. Ron DeSantis, his administration, and the Republican-controlled state Legislature have left the LGBTQ community, along with family members, friends and employers anxious as they adjust to a new reality and wait to see what comes next from Tallahassee. “They have just decided to...

“How much of yourself had to be quieted while you were in the White House?” Hoda Kotb asked Michelle Obama on a book tour stop in Philadelphia. “So much of it,” the former first lady answers. “It was no accident that our children had to show up right in the world. They carried a burden of making sure they weren’t messy,” Mrs. Obama shares in an exclusive audio clip shared with ESSENCE of her new Audible podcast, which launched Tuesday. “It wouldn’t have been laughed off,” she continues. “It wouldn’t have been [dismissed as] just ‘oh it’s youthful’ whatever. It...

Moscow on Thursday (Mar 2) claimed that Ukrainians had crossed into southern Russia and killed two civilians, an allegation dismissed by Kyiv as a "deliberate provocation". Russia says its regions bordering Ukraine are routinely shelled by Ukrainian forces, but the alleged incursion, if confirmed, would be a rare instance of fighting inside its territory. Russia's FSB security service said in a statement that the "Ukrainian nationalists" had later been pushed back over the border and targeted with a "massive artillery strike".

Insiders claim Meghan Markle has been left 'upset and overwhelmed' for the past few days at how she and Prince Harry are depicted in an episode of South Park. The episode, titled 'World Privacy Tour' pokes fun at the couple's grievances, while Meghan is introduced cuttingly as a 'sorority girl, actress, influencer, victim,' by another character. The satirical series ridiculed the couple's demands for privacy while on a publicity blitz for the prince's autobiography 'Waaaah' - a dig at Harry's recent memoir Spare - in last week's brutal episode. According to a source in California, Meghan spent the last few...

Lufthansa canceled more than 1,300 flights Friday, compounding a week of nightmares for travelers using the major European airline. Workers at seven German airports, including Munich, Frankfurt, and Hamburg, took collective action Friday, according to CNN. The full-day strike halted Lufthansa's operations in Frankfurt and Munich Friday, affecting thousands of would-be passengers. "For Friday, 17 February, the German union Ver.di has called for a one-day strike at various airports in Germany," read an update on Lufthansa's website. "Due to the closure of the airports in Frankfurt and Munich on this day, all Lufthansa flights that should have taken off or...