Free Republic

New York City Draft Riots (July 13-16, 1863) Opposition to Civil War conscription sparked riots in New York City, primarily among Irish immigrants. Mobs attacked government buildings, looted, and targeted Black residents, killing at least 120. Federal troops (~4,000) from the Battle of Gettysburg restored order, killing dozens of rioters in street battles, one of the largest federal responses to urban unrest at the time.Eutaw Riot, Alabama (1870) The Ku Klux Klan attacked a Republican rally in Eutaw, Alabama, targeting Black voters. Federal troops (~500) restored order, an early use of federal force against racial violence in the Reconstruction-era South.Coeur...

President Trump has long mused about using troops to crush violent protests or riots in blue-state cities. He is now moving to do so in Los Angeles.Setting up a rare use of military force on domestic soil, President Trump ordered the Pentagon on Saturday night to send at least 2,000 National Guard troops to respond to protests in Los Angeles set off by his immigration crackdown.Mr. Trump has long mused about using military force on domestic soil to crush violent protests or riots, fight crime and hunt for undocumented migrants — a move that his aides talked him out of...

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass could both face federal charges over their response to ICE raids in the city, President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has warned. As violence tore apart sections of downtown LA, Compton and the suburb of Paramount, the administration has accused the Golden State Dems of fueling tensions, which exploded in riots on Saturday. “Someone is going to lose their life,” Homan warned, speaking to NBC News. He said that he has not ruled out asking the Department of Justice to prosecute the elected officials for allegedly having a role in...

Representative Nanette Barragán (D-CA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Donald Trump was “targeting peaceful protests” by sending the National Guard to Los Angeles. Host Dana Bash said, “Let’s start with the fact that the president ordered National Guard troops to respond in LA County within the next 24 hours. What have you heard about the situation on the ground? What updates are you getting?” Barragán said, “Well, I’ve spoken to the sheriffs on the ground who have said they have things under control. There is no need for the National Guard. They have the manpower...

President Donald Trump has an action-packed trip to Asia slated to begin Sunday, starting in Japan before heading to South Korea and China, then Vietnam and the Philippines. Ahead of this international tour, two U.S. strategic B-1B bombers conducted drills over South Korea. North Korea was quick to condemn that action. News of the drills was first reported by North Korean state news agency KCNA on Friday, which said the exercises involving South Korean and Japanese fighter jets were a “surprise nuclear strike drill”. “The reality clearly shows that the gangster-like U.S. imperialists are the very one who is aggravating...

It's understood that 100 people were trapped in underground tunnels, and a further collapse occurred during the rescue operation, suggesting that a total of 200 people may have been killed At least 200 people have been killed at Kim Jong-un's nuclear test site in North Korea after a tunnel collapsed. A news agency quoted a North Korean official as saying that a collapse occurred during the construction of an underground tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast of North Korea on October 10. According to the report, 100 people were trapped in underground tunnels, and a further...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt his country’s presidential election by shelling Russian territory and using 2,500 soldiers to try to pierce Russia’s borders, promising to punish Kyiv for its actions. Polls opened across 11 time zones in Russia on Friday to begin three days of voting with Putin almost certain to secure his fifth term since winning his first election in 2000 with dissent in the country almost completely stifled. The shadow of the Ukraine war fell across the election with what Putin said was repeated shelling of western Russia and an attempt by...

HUMILIATED KIM Jong-un has vowed to hunt down the traitors responsible for the disgraceful launch of his new warship - and they face potential execution. North Korean state media said a group of "relevant experts" were being gathered for a probe to find those responsible - after Kim branded the spectacle a "criminal act". New satellite images showed the extent of the damages, with the not-so-menacing destroyer lying on its side and blue sheets covering it up. Part of the vessel, thought to be built with help from Russian despot Vladimir Putin, still appeared to be on the shipway while...

Demonstrators in Paraguay have set fire to the country's Congress amid violent protests against a bill that would let the president seek re-election. Protestors stormed the legislature, breaking windows and fences. The countries 1992 constitution, introduced after 35 years of dictatorship, strictly limits the president to a single five-year term. But sitting President Horactio Cartes is attempting to remove the restriction and run for re-election. Protestors were photographed smashing in windows of the congress building in Asuncion on Friday night and setting fire to the interior.

Jeanine Áñez was detained in the early morning in her hometown of Trinidad and was flown to the capital, La Paz. She had earlier warned that officials were searching for her, terming it “abuse and persecution” in Twitter posts. The arrest of Áñez and warrants against numerous other former officials further worsened political tensions in a South American country already torn by a cascade of perceived wrongs suffered by both sides. Those include complaints that Morales had grown more authoritarian with nearly 13 years in office, that he illegally ran for a fourth reelection and then allegedly rigged the outcome,...

My country, Venezuela, is on the verge of social and economic collapse. This slow-motion disaster, nearly 15 years in the making, was not initiated by falling oil prices or by mounting debts. It was set in motion by the authoritarian government’s hostility toward human rights and the rule of law and the institutions that protect them. -excerpt- I am writing from a military prison, where I have been held since February as a result of speaking out against the government’s actions. I am one of scores of political prisoners in my country .... -excerpt- ... Venezuela’s road to ruin was...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Honduras next week to attend the inauguration of President-elect Xiomara Castro, the Central American country’s first female president. Castro, the leftist opposition party candidate, won out over the country’s ruling party in November. She will be inaugurated Jan. 27. She is the former first lady and her husband, José Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the army in a coup in 2009. She rode a wave of popular discontent with 12 years of National Party governance, which peaked in former President Juan Orlando Hernández’s second term.

Moscow legislators backtracked on claims that they are considering the return of a monument honoring the founder of the Soviet secret police to the center of the city. The city parliament made no plans concerning the return of the statue of Felix "Iron Felix" Dzerzhinsky, legislature speaker Vladimir Platonov said on Ekho Moskvy radio Saturday. City lawmakers have no right to pitch such initiatives anyway and can only rule on their funding, said Platonov, a member of the ruling United Russia party. Fellow city lawmaker Andrei Metelsky said earlier Saturday that the Dzerzhinsky statue was a historical landmark and could...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday thanked North Korea for sending troops to fight alongside Russia in Moscow's war against Ukraine and vowed not to forget their sacrifices. Putin's comments came just hours after North Korea confirmed for the first time that it had deployed troops to fight Ukrainian forces. -snip- In a statement, Putin praised North Korean troops who he said fought "shoulder to shoulder with Russian fighters, defended our Motherland as their own." "The Russian people will never forget the heroism of the DPRK special forces," Putin said. "We will always honor the heroes who gave their lives...

Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said Monday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” that she was training Americans to help take down a potential “dictatorship” of President Donald Trump. At her resistance lab training, Jayapal said, “It appears that the Trump administration is willing to ignore judicial decisions and so that brings us to you in this room. It brings us to the people that is really, the bulwark, the wall against the crumbling of democracy.” Maddow said, “Help me understand this idea of the resistance lab and what you’re talking about in practical terms at these events.” Jayapal said, “Yeah...

Russia and Belarus can form a joint parliament if they are ready. This was stated by the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, speaking at the plenary session of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation. The idea of ​​creating a parliament of the union state was rejected in early 2023. Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus has been operating since 1996, which includes 36 deputies from each country, the newspaper "Parliamentskaya Gazeta" reminds. "The Belarusian-Russian integration process must be made irreversible," Lukashenko believes. Discussing the prospects of Belarus joining Russia, Lukashenko noted: "We must move...

Is this the beginning of the end for Volodymyr Zelensky?Ukrainian reporter Diana Panchenko called out Volodymyr Zelensky this week in her video release. The Ukrainian reporter called Zelensky a dictator, and accused him of jailing and murdering his opponents.Diana Panchenko is a YouTube personality who reports on the Ukraine-Russia War. She is an enemy of the pro-war crowd in Ukraine.In this week’s video Diana takes things to a whole new level!It makes you wonder if this is the beginning of the end for Zelensky?Are Volodymyr’s days numbered?Diana Panchenko: Today, I ask for your attention. Zelenski took Ukraine hostage. We want...

For years, the Biden-Harris administration and the legacy media have insisted that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a valiant defender of democracy. The narrative has been relentless—from the halls of Congress to the editorial pages of newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic: Zelenskyy is a modern Churchill, courageously leading his people against tyranny.# As Ted Galen Carpenter outlined in The American Conservative:Under his rule, the Ukrainian government has outlawed nearly a dozen opposition parties, stifled the press, launched a campaign against uncooperative churches, and has conducted a program of arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and assassination.#The idea that Zelenskyy was ever a guardian...

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) claimed Tuesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that it is “disgusting” that President Donald Trump is not standing with democracies like Ukraine. Co-host Pamela Brown asked, “Is the United States on team Russia now?” Warner said, “This has been a, you know, a two week streak. Remember a week ago last Monday, for the first time ever, America in the United Nations voted with with Russia, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua denying who started the war in Ukraine. The whole world knows Russia started it. Now you’ve got these this effort after the breakout in the White...

Trump wants FBI agents who investigated his coup attempt, his facilitating espionage, or his other financial and criminal activities fired. Let’s be very clear: this is how dictatorships start. A guy who wants to be a dictator always begins by changing how the government works. Even though the majority of the nation had agreed previously that the government should do certain things in certain ways, he reassures everybody he’s got a better way and it’ll all work out..... In the process, he breaks a bunch of laws, but people mostly shrug because they don’t directly affect them. Pastor Niemöller wrote...