Free Republic

With Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain signing a historic treaty at the White House on Tuesday, the Washington Free Beacon looks back on predictions of Middle East turmoil when the Trump administration recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2018. Although critics such as former secretary of state John Kerry proclaimed at the time that the rejection of Palestinian claims to the city would stymie peace efforts in the Middle East or lead to violence, the UAE and Bahrain announced they would formally recognize Israel and establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. President Donald Trump and Israeli prime...

The House voted Wednesday to approve legislation to remove statues in the Capitol of people who served the Confederacy or otherwise worked to defend slavery, a moment sparked by the demonstrations for racial justice across the country. The legislation was approved in a 305-113 vote. All of the "no" votes came from GOP lawmakers, while 72 Republicans voted to remove the statues. “Just imagine what it feels like as an African American to know that my ancestors built the Capitol, but yet there are monuments to the very people that enslaved my ancestors,” Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), the leader of...

The Justice Department on Thursday carried out the second federal execution this week, following another set of Supreme Court orders issued in the dead of night saying the lethal injection could proceed. Federal officials in Indiana executed Wesley Purkey, 68. He was pronounced dead at 8:19 a.m., they said. Purkey was convicted in 2003 of raping and murdering 16-year-old Jennifer Long, and had also killed Mary Ruth Bales, an 80-year-old woman, court records show. *** PurkeyÂ’s execution, like LeeÂ’s, was carried out following expansive legal battles that unfolded on multiple fronts before eventually arriving at the Supreme Court. In various...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted another injunction on the Trump administration's rapid push to resume federal death sentences this week. A divided court lifted one of a handful of injunctions temporarily blocking the execution of a man whose lawyers say suffers from severe dementia. The vote was 5-4 with the liberal justices — Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — dissenting. DEVELOPING...

A federal judge in Washington has blocked federal executions scheduled for this week, citing concerns that the lethal injection protocol involved is "very likely to cause extreme pain and needless suffering." Judge Tanya Chutkan said the last-minute ruling only hours before executions were set to resume for the first time in 17 years was "unfortunate," but she blamed the Justice Department for racing ahead before legal challenges had been fully aired. The judge said the prison's plan to use a single drug, pentobarbital, could cause pulmonary edema, producing a sense that the condemned men were drowning. That would violate the...

he U.S. on Tuesday carried out its first federal execution in almost two decades, killing by lethal injection a man convicted of murdering an Arkansas family in a 1990s plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. The execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, over the objection of the victims’ relatives and following days of legal wrangling and delays, revived the debate over capital punishment during a time of widespread social unrest. *** Lee, 47, of Yukon, Oklahoma, professed his innocence just before he was executed at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. “I didn’t do it," Lee...

Two San Quentin Prison death row inmates died Friday from what appear to be complications related to the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to a statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. There have been at least three death row inmates at the prison who have died of the virus since June 24. Scott Thomas Erskine, 57, had been on California's death row since 2004, and Manuel Machado Alvarez, 59, had been on death row since 1989, both died on July 3, 2020, at outside hospitals. A third death row inmate at San Quentin, Richard Stitely, 71, died June 24...

Paul LaFrance, a business owner who lives in the Detroit metro area, has never protested. But that's going to change this week. He's joining a group of Michigan residents planning to protest their governor's stay-at-home order at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing on Wednesday. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who was elected in 2018, issued a new stay-at-home order on Thursday to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The order, one of the nation's most stringent, included closing parts of big-box stores that sell gardening and home-improvement goods, limiting the use of motorboats, closing public golf courses, and curbing interstate travel. The...

Judge to decide if Dallas teen will stand trial as adult for rape, murder

Indonesia has announced plans to build a new capital city as its current capital, Jakarta, struggles with pollution, traffic gridlock — and the fact that the city is sinking. After a Cabinet meeting on Monday, planning minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said President Joko Widodo has decided to move the capital out of Indonesia's main island, Java. It's not clear exactly when this will happen, or where the new capital would be located. The idea has been out there for decades, though previous leaders have been unable to accomplish the ambitious plan. Earlier this month, Widodo secured another term in office, according...

United Nations Human Rights Council member state Saudi Arabia today beheaded 37 Saudi citizens in a mass execution across the country for alleged terrorism-related crimes, publicly pinning one headless body to a pole as a warning to others. It marked the largest number of executions in a single day in Saudi Arabia since Jan. 2, 2016, when the kingdom executed 47 individuals, including a prominent Shiite cleric whose death sparked protests in Iran and the ransacking of the Saudi Embassy there. "The death penalty was implemented on a number of criminals for adopting extremist terrorist ideologies and forming terrorist cells...

As to the missing cornerstone, this is a fascinating and little known part of history. Together with the cornerstone of the Capital, which is thought to have gone missing as well, the answer for this mystery has to do with the growth of the United States as it pertains to the relocation of the nation's capital. Major stuff! Just a little bit of early American history will help fill in the blank as to how this strangely unique question of why the cornerstones went missing has held significance throughout the years. Presidents have tried to answer this. Again, the destiny...

Australia may follow US president Donald Trump’s lead and move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Scott Morrison, Australia’s new prime minister, said on Tuesday he was “open to” following the move, describing it as a “sensible” proposal.

Following the social unrest over Confederate flags, statues and symbols in 2015, a lot of southerners and their supporters around the country were rather unhappy with the results. (Regular readers already know you can count me among their ranks.) One of the most high-profile battles in that struggle took place at the capitol in South Carolina. There, the Confederate Battle Flag was finally lowered for the last time on July 10th of that year. Now, three years later, the flag is flying again… at least for a few hours. Some sons (and daughters) of the South are raising a temporary...

They said it wouldn't happen, but it did: The money companies stashed overseas to protect them from high U.S. corporate tax rates is flooding back in, boosting growth, jobs and confidence in the economy. Thank the Trump tax cuts. All told, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported, some $305.6 billion returned to the U.S. from overseas accounts. That's a $1.2 trillion annual rate, and far more than the $35 billion one year before. The BEA's analysts explain why this happened: "The large magnitudes (of inward capital flows) ... reflect the repatriation of accumulated earnings by foreign affiliates of U.S....

In the UK Prime Minister Theresa May said she would challenge the country's closest ally. 'I'm intending to speak to President Trump about this matter,' May told MPs. 'Our position has not changed, it has been a long standing one and it is also a very clear one. 'It is that the status of Jerusalem should be determined in a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and Jerusalem should ultimately form a shared capital between the Israeli and Palestinian states.'

Semyon Dukach is a serial entrepreneur. In 1997, he started Fast Engines, a company that produced performance enhancing software for online apps. He sold it for $35 million in 2000 — when he owned a nearly 50 percent stake in the company, according to Forbes. Then, he became a prominent angel investor and went on to lead TechStars Boston, the most prestigious startup accelerator in town. Now, he’s working on a new project, One Way Ventures — a venture capital fund specifically for immigrant founders. BostonomiX caught up with Dukach to talk about One Way, the challenges facing immigrant entrepreneurs...

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jLNiUzJfsQ President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Defense Department, General (ret.) James Mattis told a congressional confirmation committee on Thursday that he believes that Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, should be considered the capital of Israel. Mattis, who in the past criticized the Jewish state over “settlements” in Judea and Samaria and warned the country was at risk of turning into an “Apartheid” state, appeared to deviate from the stated policy of the incoming Trump administration, which has indicated it plans to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. When asked Thursday by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham what...

President-elect Donald Trump's team is moving ahead with plans to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel out of Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, although diplomats and officials are ramping up warnings against the move. CNN reported speculation in Israel is the U.S. will announce the move May 24, a national holiday in that country. Earlier this month, President Barack Obama renewed a waiver that blocks the move for six months. Allies have said moving the embassy could ramp up violence. "It's very dangerous," one European diplomat told CNN. "Chances for the peace process are going very quickly — it's now or...

President-elect Trump won't get any help from the State Department in implementing Israeli-relation policies opposed by President Obama before his inauguration. "The short answer is no," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters. "You have one president at a time." Obama's team invoked that axiom to justify high-profile foreign policy actions in recent weeks, notably his decisions to sanction Russia over the election year cyberattacks and to allow the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israeli settlement construction. Kirby's statement extended that principle to barring any aid in helping the Trump team prepare to move the United States embassy to...