Free Republic

The resolution, adopted last week, made a host of recommendations for the EU to pursue at the 70th annual UN Commission on the Status of Women, which is set to take place next month. Among the recommendations was a proclamation emphasising the “importance of the full recognition of trans women as women, noting that their inclusion is essential for the effectiveness of any gender-equality and anti-violence policies”. Other proclamations referencing LGBTQ+ people included the need for a “comprehensive tool to monitor and counter democratic backsliding and backsliding in women’s rights”, as well as the acknowledgement of a rise in attacks...

Gavin Newsom’s whirlwind weekend in Germany will cost a pretty penny, paid for by a secretive nonprofit that’s run by his longtime aides and receives money from special interests, The California Post has learned. The invite-only Munich Security Conference is being held across two luxury hotels in Old Town Munich — the Hotel Bayerischer Hof and Rosewood — and Newsom’s itinerary includes two sessions on climate change and transatlantic relations. The likely 2028 presidential candidate also plans to ink a partnership with Ukraine and have a powwow with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz while rubbing elbows with foreign leaders and business...

Marco Rubio considers it an "overused term" while Friedrich Merz thinks it "no longer exists". But while the US Secretary of State and German chancellor may not believe in the relevance of the rules-based international order, the concept — and its potential collapse — has been at the forefront of global geopolitics of late. The phrase caught the global attention in January after a rare speech, from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in which a world leader tackled the often unspoken concept head on. "We knew the story of the rules-based international order was partially false, that the strongest would...

Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar launched his party’s election campaign in Budapest on Sunday, vowing to restore Hungary’s Western orientation just eight weeks before he faces Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a pivotal vote. Magyar, a former insider in Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party, burst onto Hungary’s political scene in 2024 after breaking with his political community and quickly forming the center-right Tisza party. After taking around 30% of the vote in European Parliament elections in June 2024, he has grown Tisza into the most formidable political force Orbán has faced during his 16 years at Hungary’s helm. Most independent polls...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clashed with a Czech political leader at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday. Clinton was speaking during a panel on the state of the West where she heavily criticized President Donald Trump for his dealings with Europe. Petr Macinka, a Czech deputy prime minister, defended the Trump administration as Clinton repeatedly mocked his statements and tried to speak over him. "First, I think you really don't like him," Macinka said as he began to respond to Clinton's Trump-bashing. "You know, that is absolutely true," Clinton said. "But not only do I not...

A grief-stricken mother says her 12-year-old daughter who was shot in the head and neck by a transgender school shooter in Canada will not survive the night. Maya Gebala was one of at least two-dozen children and teachers wounded when Jesse Strang, 18, opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, killing eight people before committing suicide. Strang was born a male and started identifying as a girl aged 12, Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed on Wednesday. Maya's mother Cia Edmonds shared a heartbreaking update from her daughter's bedside in Vancouver Children's Hospital. 'We were warned that the damage to her...

SUPER BOWL LX: Live Thread Your home for all things Fool's Ball! In Memoriam Danny Lee (BENDER2)

The Justice Department announced Friday that a “key participant” in the September 11, 2012, Benghazi attack is now in U.S. custody and will be prosecuted for his alleged role in the deaths of four Americans. Attorney General Pam Bondi identified the suspect as Zubayr Al-Bakoush and said he arrived at Andrews AFB early Friday. Prosecutors have filed an eight-count indictment that includes murder-related charges tied to the deaths of several Americans. Bondi made the announcement alongside FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, and Al-Bakoush is expected to face charges that include terrorism, arson, and murder.

The prospect of a full-blown trade war between the EU and the US was averted for the second time in less than 12 months following President Donald Trump's dramatic U-turn on Greenland. For Ireland, several uncomfortable truths are emerging after this week’s geopolitical chaos. The trading relationship with the US is part of the bedrock of the Irish economic success story. It is based on Ireland providing an environment of stability for multinationals. One of the certainties important for US corporations is the level of tariffs applied to exports shipped across the Atlantic. […] Fortunately for Ireland, pharmaceuticals and computer...

Demand for sex workers in Davos skyrocketed during this year’s World Economic Forum — including one client who allegedly shelled out a whopping $114,000 for four days with five women. The apparent work hard, party harder attitude of the global elite was apparent in the voracious appetite for escorts in the Swiss town, where global leaders, big tech CEOs and moneyed magnates sent requests for sex workers surging, according to the Swiss dating and erotic services platform Titt4Tat. Requests for erotic services soared to 79 — or a staggering 4,000% — on Jan. 19, the opening day of the World...

A senior Navy official removed from her post by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year is running for Congress. Nancy Lacore, who served in the Navy for 35 years as a Navy helicopter pilot, three-star admiral and the chief of the Navy Reserve, announced a run for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District on Tuesday. "After decades of service to our country, a career that started as a Navy pilot and finished as a three-star admiral, I was removed from my position without cause. I still have more to give, more to fight for, more work to do -- and I...

Donald Tusk’s government has replaced the words “woman” and “man” in key official documents with gender-neutral terms so that same-sex marriages conducted elsewhere can be recognised in Poland. This follows the European Court of Justice’s November ruling that Poland must recognise a gay couple’s foreign marriage despite the country itself forbidding same-sex marriage. But a host of politicians and legal experts have argued that Warsaw was not obliged to introduce this change of language. Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, however, appeared to concede that the move was voluntary, saying his team “wanted to” recognise same-sex marriages. In a statement released...

Ten British "far-right activists" have been banned from France after engaging in actions to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, the French interior ministry said on Wednesday. It said the activists, who belonged to a group called Raise the Colours, had been searching for and destroying small boats along France's northern coast, and were involved in "propaganda activity". Authorities have not released their identities. In a statement, Raise the Colours said it had always maintained that its activities must remain peaceful and within the law and it "does not support violence or any unlawful activity". The ministry...

Yes, this is real (see clip)

VIDEOIf you are already irked by the title of this video as somehow being "clickbait" I too would have that attitude UNTIL I watched the video. As most of the Spanish speaking world (and many in the English speaking world) now realize, the plucking of Dictator Nicolas Maduro out of Venezuela in the early morning hours of January 3, 2026 was facilitated by a deal arranged by Special Envoy Rick Grenell with Venezuelan Vice President (now acting President) Delcy Rodriguez and her brother, Jorge Rodriguez, who is the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly. Famous Peruvian journalist Jaime Bayly who...

Polish schoolchildren have protested a teacher’s removal of a Christian cross from a classroom and putting it in a bin, spurring a demonstration in front of the school. At the same time, the justice ministry is drafting legislative changes to reduce penalties under Poland’s blasphemy legislation, sparking criticism that the government is reducing the protection afforded Christians. The pupils’ demonstration came yesterday over an English language teacher who had demanded on December 15 the removal of the cross from a classroom she was teaching in. When the schoolchildren protested, she threw the cross into a bin. The teacher’s behaviour in...

BERLIN, Jan 8 (Reuters) - German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has strongly criticised U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump and urged the world not to let the world order disintegrate into a "den of robbers" where the unscrupulous take what they want. In unusually strong remarks, which appeared to refer to actions such as the ousting of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro at the weekend, the former foreign minister said global democracy was being attacked as never before. Although the German president's role is largely ceremonial, his words carry some weight and he has more freedom to express views than politicians....

"Lindsey Graham: You just wait for Cuba. Their days are numbered." ...

The Anglican communion’s newly minted Archbishop of Wales, the Rev. Cherry Vann, is lamenting that people are leaving the church on account of her lesbianism, describing their actions as “very hurtful.” Vann is the first woman to be elected as an Anglican archbishop in the United Kingdom and the first openly gay bishop serving as primate in the Anglican Communion. Notably, Vann is not ‘married’ to her lesbian girlfriend, Wendy Diamond, but has been living in a “same-sex civil partnership” for years. She told BBC News: “There are still patches all over the place where people continue to struggle with...

Epstein Island was just a sideshow, what this really was about was financing Covert Ops during the 1980's and 90's This is it. The key to Epstein: Bear Stearns put him on BCCI trades in 1979, when it made millions helping the CIA, Brits, Saudis & Israelis disguise covert cash by clearing $13 billion with BCCI, a CIA money laundering bank. Epstein simply developed that clientele & career niche. The rest is history.