Free Republic

Commissioner Ana María Archila was scheduled to meet with Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, at 2 United Nations Plaza. The meeting between Archila and Iravani was called off after the State Department—which was not informed ahead of time—met with the Mamdani administration to clarify acceptable conduct. Commissioner Archila allegedly did not inform Mayor Mamdani of the meeting; she was reprimanded for the move and directed to cancel the meeting. The development is a continuation of Commissioner Archila and the Mamdani administration’s ongoing use of public resources to advance an agenda that extends well beyond New York City. On...

A BUNGLED secret French attempt to rescue a Colombian politician held hostage in the Amazon jungle has enraged the governments of Brazil and Colombia and embarrassed President Chirac. The bid to rescue Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candididate who has dual French-Colombian nationality, was ordered by Dominique de Villepin, the French Foreign Minister. Señora Betancourt is one of his former students. The operation ended in fiasco, with French undercover agents arrested by Brazilian police and M de Villepin accused of a cavalier approach that has set back hopes of Señora Betancourt’s release. M de Villepin denied that he had...

— At least 47 people were killed and dozens of buildings collapsed in cities across western Colombia on Monday after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the South American nation. The quake trapped residents under debris, leaving more injured and forcing people to evacuate their homes as far as the capital of Bogotá. The epicenter was in San Jose Del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey and Colombia’s counterpart reported. The USGS said it struck at a depth of 66 miles (107 kilometers). The...

On Monday morning, Columbia Journalism School reminded the public of how much it’s a waste of time and money as a black hole of far-left propaganda by declaring that they were “pleased to welcome” former CBS’s 60 Minutes correspondents Scott Pelley and Sharyn Alfonsi as “Journalists in Residence” for the upcoming academic year. Dean Jelani Cobb — who appears regularly on MS NOW to offer deranged, hate-filled hot takes against half the country — made the announcement as something they’re “excited and honored” to have happen, adding “[t]heir distinguished track records in investigative reporting highlight the amazing opportunity our students...

The three Irishmen in hiding after being sentenced to 17 years in prison for training Farc rebels in Colombia have returned to Ireland and insisted they are not on the run. Martin McAuley, Niall Connolly and Jim Monaghan have been on the run since a Bogota court overturned their original acquittal in December. A Government spokesman has been quoted as saying the Government had no prior knowledge of the men's return. "This issue was not part of the Government's discussions with Sinn Fein and we had no prior knowledge of their return to Ireland," a spokesperson said. The Department of...

A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling that freed Columbia student and pro-Palestinian protester Mohsen Mahdawi from ICE custody. A Second Circuit panel, made up of one George W. Bush judge and two Donald Trump first-term appointees, determined that Mahdawi should not have been released from ICE custody in 2025. They argued that the Vermont-based federal judge that made the initial ruling lacked jurisdiction to do so. The panel concluded that only an immigration court could oversee Mahdawi's detention challenge, as the case was inextricably linked to his deportation suit. Mahdawi was arrested by masked agents...

US Capitol Police arrest an armed man at the North Barricade of the U.S. Capitol Building (screenshot via CNN) The US Capitol Police arrested an armed man on the US Capitol grounds on Monday. The US Capitol Police said in an alert that they were responding to “potential security concern at the North Barricade of the U.S. Capitol Building” and urged staff and other personnel to avoid the area. They later announced that they had arrested a man carrying a firearm, and an investigation remains ongoing. More from Fox: US Capitol Police Arrest Armed Man Video from the scene shows...

The Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer and self-styled “outsider” Abelardo de la Espriella has won Colombia’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda. With 99.98% of ballots counted in the preliminary vote tally, De la Espriella had secured 12.95m votes, or 49.66%, just 249,901 more than Cepeda, who received 12.7m votes, or 48.7%. A further 1.6% of ballots were cast blank. The margin was narrower than in the first round three weeks ago, when De la Espriella had beaten Cepeda by 673,000 votes. De la Espriella’s victory marks a sharp swing back to the right after four years under Colombia’s...

(The Center Square) - No friend of the court briefs will be allowed in America’s attempted prosecution against its former FBI Director James Comey in a North Carolina federal courtroom. In the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Judge Louise Flanagan on Friday gave a one-page order explaining the discretion available to the court and the route she’s chosen. Comey, facing charges tied to his posting of an image of seashells spelling out 86 47 on the Outer Banks, is scheduled for arraignment on Sept. 30 in New Bern and trial Oct. 21. He is facing...

[snip] To begin CNN This Morning's discussion of the anti-ICE riots, host Audie Cornish called on Karen Attiah, the creator and leader of the Resistance Summer School. As per its website, the school is: A "structure for radical learning . . . Students will explore how colonial legacies and racial hierarchies shape global politics, diplomacy, conflict, and coverage —and how media systems often reinforce (or resist) these power structures." Take a look below at the school's insignia featuring a clenched fist, a traditional socialist symbol. And it adopts as its motto, "A Luta Continua" [The Struggle Continues.] That was the...

A growing number of experts are raising the alarm over billionaire Bill Gates’s extensive involvement in genetically modified mosquito projects after it emerged that the Microsoft co-founder has released hundreds of millions of bacteria-infested mosquitoes into the wild in Colombia. The revelation is drawing renewed scrutiny to Gates’s other mosquito-based biological interventions around the world, with scientists warning that the long-term consequences remain largely unknown. The concerns intensified after the government of Burkina Faso terminated the controversial Target Malaria project last year, citing biosafety risks, questionable effectiveness, and concerns over scientific sovereignty. The project had received significant funding from the...

Father of 22-year-old Logan Federico screaming at Democrats in Congress after his daughter was dragged from bed, forced on her knees, and executed... ...by a man arrested 39 TIMES with 25 FELONIES... May be the most powerful and heartbreaking video I've ever watched. Everyone who let this demon walk freely, should be in prison.

More Iranian militia types are in the news, sad to say. Even worse, they're not doing their thing on their home turf - they're in the export business. Breaking News: An Iran-backed militia commander was arrested and charged with plotting to attack Jewish sites in the U.S., including one in New York. Prosecutors say he is a leader of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia with ties to Iran. https://t.co/5FyiNgseXk— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 15, 2026Iran-backed Iraqi terrorists Kata’ib Hezbollah are reportedly seeking negotiations with the Iraqi government for the release of kidnapped American journalist Shelly Kittleson.The group is...

WASHINGTON—Attorney General Merrick Garland’s move last month to limit Justice Department probes of journalists is facing an early test from an unlikely source: a federal judge overseeing a criminal case against a talk-show host on Infowars, a right-wing website known for touting discredited conspiracy theories. In an order made public Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said prosecutors refused to answer on the record whether they had complied with the department’s updated media policy when seeking a warrant to arrest the talk-show host, Owen Shroyer, for his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. “The events...

Indian magnate Anant Ambani, son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has offered to take in at his wildlife sanctuary in India, 80 “cocaine hippos” currently living in Colombia, where the government is planning to cull them. The hippos are descended from animals introduced to the country in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar, one of Colombia’s top drug lords, who sought to have one of the largest private zoos in Latin America with a wide variety of animals. Since then, their population has exploded to around 160 individuals, and their presence is now endangering native species. A few weeks ago, Colombia said...

At 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 14, Ana Belen Montes, a senior analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), walked into a public telephone booth outside Washington's National Zoo and made two calls to pager numbers later traced by federal agents to Cuba's Directorate of General Intelligence (DGI). She already had compromised the identities of CIA agents, revealed U.S. military secrets and exposed the contents of classified files. But, as Montes sent repeated signals to her DGI handlers during the days immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the ...

...testimony of Jeffrey Epstein personal attorney...raising suspicions... Crown Princess Mette-Marit portraying herself as a victim of Jeffrey Epstein... United Airlines cutting scheduled flights by five percent... 10 killed, 59 injured...fire...auto parts factory...South Korea... Lebanon late tonight new Israeli evacuation orders... Iranian missile attacks on Israel late tonight... President Donald Trump rejecting any truce...objectives are 'very close' to being met... US Marines that could seize Iranian territory moving towards... Israeli air attacks on Tehran late tonight... A jury finding Elon Musk liable for misleading investors... Heavy rains...flooding Hawaii...residents ordered to evacuate... US easing sanctions on Iranian oil... US federal prosecutors probing...

BOGOTA, March 8 (Reuters) - Colombians were heading to the polls on Sunday to elect a new Congress and choose three of the presidential candidates who ​will contest elections this May, a vote that will shape the next ‌president's ability to push through legislation and fulfill their agenda. Voters will choose from over 3,000 candidates to fill 102 Senate seats and 182 House seats, in an election analysts predict will ​be divided among some two dozen parties, likely forcing the next president ​to form a coalition government. ... President Gustavo Petro, whose term ends in August, has repeatedly questioned the...

Father James E. Coyle, an extraordinary priest and Knight of Columbus in the early 20th century, courageously stood up against widely-held anti-Catholic views at the risk, and then cost, of his life.The Irish-born priest was scarcely in his 20s when, after his ordination in Rome, he was dispatched to Alabama to begin his priesthood. The Catholic population in Alabama had exploded with a promise of jobs, especially in and around Birmingham’s network of coal mines, steel mills and iron foundries. Father Coyle arrived in the city shortly before a wave of anti-Catholicism flooded the country, and the revived Ku...

War erupted at Columbia University when lefty faculty and students mobilized to torpedo an ICE recruitment event the school dared to post. The meltdown was triggered by an ad this week on the website of Columbia’s School of Professional Studies for a Feb. 18 US Customs and Border Protection virtual career expo. “Help defend the homeland,” reads the description of the event seeking to recruit for thousands of “mission critical positions,” and promising various Department of Homeland Security agencies in attendance. “This is a unique opportunity to learn more about our mission and how you could contribute to it, making...