Free Republic

Republican voices were mostly silent as No Kings rallies and marches against Trump administration policies unfurled on Saturday, many in the spirit of a street party that countered the “hate America” depiction advanced by senior members of the party. Instead of provocation, there were marching bands, huge banners with “we the people” references to the US constitution, and protesters wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance. It was the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and came against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal...

UN has condemned US strikes on small boats it believes to be trafficking drugs as extrajudicial executionsDonald Trump said the US has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off Venezuela, killing six people.“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social social media platform.The United Nations has condemned the US strikes on small boats it believes to be trafficking drugs as extrajudicial executions. The US defends the attacks as countering...

If you’re old enough to have admired CBS in its heyday, watching its decline has been painful.Decades ago, it was dubbed the Tiffany Network – home of the great journalist Walter Cronkite (“the most trusted man in America”), and innovator of the top-flight magazine program, 60 Minutes.Even outside its news division, the network was a place where the variety-show host Ed Sullivan could break down racial exclusion by inviting outstanding Black entertainers to his Sunday night program; that was controversial in an era of intense racial turmoil. The CBS news department had some of the best journalists in the nation,...

The president of the United States seemingly does not understand what the military is forNo dictator or would-be dictator on day one has ever assembled before him in one room the entire senior officer corps of his armed forces in order to have them belittled as failures and humiliated for their slovenly personal appearance, while degrading whole classes serving in the army, navy and air force degraded as inferior and unworthy. No dictator has ever pleaded for generals and admirals to applaud his remarks, followed by deafening silence.Donald Trump is used to entering to the din of a mob jazzed...

The prime minister has called for protesters to “respect the grief of British Jews this week” after the Manchester synagogue attack. Ahead of a planned demonstration against the ban on Palestine Action this Saturday, Keir Starmer wrote in the Jewish Chronicle that activists should recognise this is a time of mourning. “Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of our democracy – and there is justified concern about the suffering in Gaza – but a minority have used these protests as a pretext for stoking antisemitic tropes,” he wrote. “I urge anyone thinking about protesting this weekend to recognise and respect the...

Postal workers in Canada have gone on strike after the government warned of an “existential crisis” and ordered sweeping changes to the national service – including an end to door-to-door delivery within the decade. The union representing Canada Post employees described the proposed changes as “an attack” on its workers who have struggled to compete with a surge in private courier services. The strike, announced by the union late on Thursday, marks the second time in the last 12 months that the country’s postal services have ground to a halt. Mail and parcels will not be processed or delivered for...

Many professors in the US south, particularly in Florida, South Carolina and Texas, are considering leaving their state because of the impact the political climate is having on education, according to a new survey by the American Association of Professors. Of those interviewed in the survey, roughly a quarter of respondents said they applied for a job in higher education in another state since the start of 2023. Heather Houser worked as a professor in the English department, teaching American literature and environmental humanities, at the University of Texas at Austin for 14 years. Like the growing number of professors...

Keir Starmer is facing demands from Labour MPs to reprimand Donald Trump’s administration after the US president falsely claimed London wanted to “go to sharia law” under its “terrible mayor”, Sadiq Khan. In an address to the UN general assembly, Trump said: “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed. Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.” The development will cause further discomfort in No 10 after Trump was last week honoured with an unprecedented...

Aerial footage shows a crowd of tens of thousands of people marching through central London on Saturday in a protest organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson. The Metropolitan police believe about 110,000 people attended his ‘unite the kingdom’ demonstration and about 5,000 a Stand Up to Racism counter-march

Keir Starmer must obey his “legal duty to act to prevent a genocide”, Greta Thunberg has told the Guardian while travelling onboard an aid flotilla heading for Gaza. The Swedish activist said there was a “huge absence of those whose legal responsibility it is to step up” under international law, and called out the UK prime minister before a potential meeting this week with Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog. In a message to Starmer, who has been urged by his own MPs not to meet the Israeli head of state on Wednesday, Thunberg said: “The words we will use to describe...

For quite some time, the leftist political establishment has been accusing President Donald Trump of abandoning the US Constitution. Now they have me wondering why that’s supposed to be a criticism. Just last week The New York Times, the establishment’s chief house organ, boosted the arguments of writer Osita Nwanevu in a column headlined: “Abolish the Senate. End the Electoral College. Pack the Court.” Why? Because “The left can’t win without a new Constitution.” He’s hardly the first Democrat to say so. I’ve noticed that whenever the Constitution stands in the way of something the left wants at the moment,...

Russia is preparing its troops for new offensives instead of getting ready to stop the war in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, ahead of talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday. “[Putin] is certainly not getting ready for a ceasefire and war end,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly address. He added, without providing specifics, that Russia was moving its troops for new operations on Ukrainian soil. “There is no sign that the Russians have received signals to prepare for a postwar situation.”

After finding fame and fortune in Riverdance and other stage shows, Michael Flatley is to seek a new role: president of Ireland. The Irish American dancer and impresario planned to move back from Monaco to Ireland and would seek nomination in the upcoming election, a Dublin court heard on Friday. An affidavit submitted during a high court case in relation to a legal dispute over renovations at Flatley’s mansion said the 67-year-old was “to seek nominations to run for president of Ireland”. An election for the largely ceremonial post must take place in the 60 days before 11 November, when...

Australia will refuse any US request to join a “hypothetical” conflict with China over Taiwan and won’t make any advance commitment, the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, has said, amid reports Washington is seeking such promises in discussions over the Aukus submarines. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, also pushed back on such a request, alluding to America’s own position of so-called “strategic ambiguity” on whether the US would militarily respond in a conflict over Taiwan. He said Australia wanted to see “peace and security” in the region. Following multiple reports this week that the Pentagon was seeking guarantees from Australia...

Shotgun pellets and bullets that contain lead are to be banned for almost all uses, ministers have said, in a long-awaited announcement welcomed by wildlife groups. < snip > The change to the law, announced by the environment minister Emma Hardy, will outlaw shotgun pellets containing more than 1% lead, and bullets that have more than 3%.

While Donald Trump – and other western leaders – are taking their time to catch up with reality, it is obvious that Vladimir Putin has no apparent desire to halt the war in Ukraine. A realistic future military and diplomatic strategy for Kyiv has to accept that fact – and formulate a new approach. The past six months have been dominated by the erroneous assumption that it would be possible for Trump to negotiate a ceasefire, even an armistice. That would be followed by the arrival of an Anglo-French led stabilisation force to secure the future of Ukraine. But Putin...

The United States only has about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it needs for all of the Pentagon’s military plans after burning through stockpiles in the Middle East in recent months, an alarming depletion that led to the Trump administration freezing the latest transfer of munitions to Ukraine.The stockpile of the Patriot missiles has fallen so low that it raised concern inside the Pentagon that it could jeopardize potential US military operations, and deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, authorized the transfer to be halted while they reviewed where weapons were being sent.snipTrump also told Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in...

‘They attack us without provocation’: West Bank town mourns its dead after settler raid Sense of helplessness pervades Kafr Malik where IDF killed three Palestinians after locals resisted masked marauders Julian Borger and Sufian Taha in Kafr Malik The men from Fatah arrived on Thursday morning, hours after the attack on Kafr Malik, to put out more flags along the main streets, adding bright primary colours to a mournful scene, but they did nothing to relieve the all-encompassing sense of helplessness. Three men from this central West Bank town, one a teenager, lay dead and several others were still in...

French police have detained 12 suspects after 145 people reported being pricked with syringes during the country’s annual street music festival, officials said on Sunday. Millions of people took to the streets across France on Saturday evening for the Fête de la Musique, with authorities reporting “unprecedented crowds” in Paris. Before the party, posts on social media had called for women to be targeted during the festivities. The interior ministry said 145 victims across the country had reported being stabbed with needles. Paris police reported 13 cases in the capital. Officials did not say if these were cases of so-called...

One morning earlier this month, Melanie woke up to the news that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had detained more than 40 migrant workers at a garment factory, as part of a series of raids across Los Angeles. Her high school, located downtown, is not too far away from where the arrests took place. She didn’t want to go to school – but still drove there to complete her final exams...... Embedded in their local communities, teachers are now becoming the biggest advocates and resource distributors for their students, helping them develop longer term resiliency at school and beyond....... Throughout...