Free Republic

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday withdrew his appeals request for his Florida classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump's co-defendants.The attorney dropped his appeal against Trump last month after Trump won reelection to the White House, citing a Justice Department policy not to prosecute sitting presidents. Trump will be sworn in next month. Smith previously accused Trump in 2022 of improperly taking classified documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. But the case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in July, who cited the constitutionality of Smith's appointment as special counsel.Trump and the...

A sample of hair belonging to the legendary 19th century Native American leader Sitting Bull has allowed scientists to confirm that a South Dakota man is his great-grandson. Scientists took DNA from a tiny sample of Sitting Bull's hair that had been stored in Washington DC. It showed that Ernie LaPointe, 73, is his great-grandson. The new method allows analysis of family lineages with DNA fragments from long-dead people.

(Reuters) - United Nations peacekeeping missions routinely avoid using force to protect civilians who are under attack, intervening in only 20 percent of cases despite being authorized to do so by the U.N. Security Council, an internal U.N. study found. "There is a persistent pattern of peacekeeping operations not intervening with force when civilians are under attack," the report by the Office of Internal Oversight Services said. "Peacekeepers are absent from many locations when civilians come under attack, and when they are present, are unable or unwilling to prevent serious physical harm from being inflicted," the 26-page report said. :snip:...