Free Republic

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini arrives in Cuba today (23 March) in a bid to spur sensitive talks aimed at normalizing ties with the Communist island state. The visit comes as previously icy relations between Cuba and the West are thawing, following the dramatic rapprochement between Havana and Washington over the last few months. […] In 2014, the EU launched its normalization process with the Americas’ only communist nation to encourage the country to pursue reforms allowing for private initiatives without having to change the one-party political system. The negotiating sessions earlier this month, initially scheduled for January, had...

PepsiCo wants in. So do Caterpillar and Marriott International. Within hours of President Obama’s historic move to restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba, companies in the United States were already developing strategies to introduce their products and services to a market they have not been in for the better part of 50 years — if ever. “Cuba is a potential market for John Deere products and services,” Ken Golden, a spokesman for Deere & Company, a leading maker of farm and construction equipment based in Illinois, said by email. But while there may be robust opportunities for some companies, especially...

Okay, everyone. Calm down. There are a lot of reasons to be worried about the president’s decision to normalize relations with Cuba. Not least among them is that this is the least-adept foreign policy team in post-Cold War history (yes, I include the Carter and Bush 43 White Houses in that evaluation), and after six years of being taken to the cleaners by bad regimes, it feels like it’s happening again. It also looks too much like a quid pro quo for the release of an imprisoned American. And it’s being rationalized by the president himself in terms that show...

A long time ago, on an island not too far away, a pair of brothers was ejected from a good Jesuit school. The one was reportedly a better student, the other less impressive, but together, they preferred other things – politics, rabble-rousing, war. When the brothers grew up, they fell in with a bad crowd – the worst of crowds, in fact. Far across the oceans, Chinese communists were consolidating their power, Soviet communists were drawing an iron curtain down the center of Europe, Korean communists were settling in for the long haul in Pyongyang, Vietnamese communists were revolting against...

The Vatican played a significant role in healing relations between arch foes Cuba and the United States, officials said Wednesday. Pope Francis was personally involved in secret negotiations between the longtime enemies, sources said Wednesday, as the historic announcement was made in Washington D.C. The pontiff sent private letters to President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro over the summer, urging them to turn their swords into ploughshares. The Pope expressed "warm congratulations for the historic decision" to resume relations, the Vatican said in a statement Wednesday. The Vatican and an undisclosed Canadian location served as top-secret areas for negotiations...

Cubans in Miami’s Little Havana reacted with anger and dismay to President Barack Obama’s dramatic bid Wednesday to end a half-century Cold War with the communist-ruled island. “It is a betrayal. The talks are only going to benefit Cuba,” said Carlos Munoz Fontanil in Calle Ocho, the heart of an exile community that has long pined for the fall of the Castro regime in Havana. […] An equally outraged Felix Tirse, who arrived from Cuba 53 years ago, said Obama’s announcement showed “a lack of respect.” “He is more communist than others,” he said. …

More and more companies are going “gay” while at the same time denigrating anybody who has an issue with same-sex, alternate sex, slice and dice sex (transgenderism), and take-your-pick sex. When it was found out that Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich opposed same-sex marriage, so much pressure was put on him because of his anti-same sex marriage views (he donated to Proposition 8) that he believed that he couldn’t do anything but resign. The Gaystapo would have made it unbearable for him and the company for Eich if he had remain as CEO. There is a long trail of persecution from...

The chief editor of a Sudanese newspaper was attacked and beaten by an angry mob late Saturday just days after a televised appearance in which he called for “normalized ties” with Israel. AFP is reporting that Osman Mirghani, editor in chief of Sudan’s Al-Tayar daily newspaper, was taken to Al-Zaytouna Hospital after the mob stormed the paper’s offices Saturday night. …

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Thursday that his country’s ties with Israel would not return to normal unless Israel ceases its offensive on Gaza, AFP reports. "You will first stop this oppression. If not, it is not possible to realize normalization between Turkey and Israel," Erdogan said in the central Anatolian city of Yozgat after a dinner breaking the daily Ramadan fast. .....

Cuba and the European Union have closed a first round of talks on normalizing relations troubled since the 1990s after agreeing to a road map for further discussions. […] EU officials say concerns about civil liberties and democratic participation will continue to influence policy. Cuba says it is open to talking about any issue. …

Secretary of State John Kerry continues to assert, misleadingly, that the signing of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement will immediately usher in peaceful relations between the Jewish state and the world’s Islamic nations. He has made the statement several times in public since launching the drive last July for a “final status” Israeli-Palestinian agreement. Citing the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative (API), he says, if Israelis and Palestinians agree to a negotiated settlement then all 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will normalize ties with Israel. He has said moreover that this would happen “instantaneously”—“the minute” that an Israeli-Palestinian...

... Griffin: I think you’re trying to tell us something… to this country. Bezmenov: Oh yes. I am trying to tell you that it has to be stopped, unless you want to end up in [a] gulag system, and enjoy all the advantages of socialist equality, working for free, catching fleas on your body, sleeping on planks of plywood, in Alaska this time, I guess. That’s where Americans will belong unless they will wake up, of course, and force their government to stop aiding Soviet fascism. ...

An Egyptian film documenting Jewish life in Egypt prior to the 1950s has stirred controversy after it was screened at a film festival in Cairo, Al-Arabiya news reported. Amir Ramsis, director of “Jews of Egypt,” was accused of promoting normalization of ties with Israel through attempting to gain the audience’s sympathy for Jewish Egyptians, who are seen as the “Zionist enemy” by the majority of Egyptians. “Those accusations are absolutely groundless,” Ramsis told Al-Arabiya. “Those who think the film promotes normalization either did not watch it or analyzed it very superficially.” He maintained that the documentary is against Israel and...

Some Illinois conservatives fear their children are about to face an assault on their morals and religious beliefs. They worry that state lawmakers will muzzle students who hold unpopular opinions and force them into indoctrination sessions. The cause of their worry? Legislation requiring Illinois schools to discourage bullying. The Illinois Family Institute claims the measure's real goal is "to use public education to promote unproven, non-factual beliefs about the nature and morality of homosexuality and 'transgenderism'." It sees the bills as a beachhead for "homosexual activist organizations" that want to indoctrinate students and teachers. Despite those broad concerns, the group's...

France and Jordan on Tuesday condemned Israel's decision to normalize the status of three communities in Judea and Samaria. The communities of Rechilim, Bruchin, and Sansana were built in the 1990's with government approval. The Foreign Ministry in Paris issued a statement that the move "sends a negative message, which is an obstacle to peace." According to France, all Israeli construction in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem is illegal. Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh also condemned Israel for "legalization of three settlements and unilateral activity." Nonetheless, a special Ministerial team appointed by the government to determine the status of Israel's...

The vast majority of Americans are outraged at the recent accusations of child rape by a former member of the football coaching staff at Penn State University and the seeming cover-up by the university’s president and legendary head football coach. At the same time, a small, radical organization, B4U-ACT, is lobbying under the radar to convince the American Psychiatric Association (APA) - publisher of the bible for identifying abnormal behaviors, the Diagnostic&StatisticalManualofMental Disorders (DSM) -to declare that pedophilia should not be included in the list of abnormal behaviors. Members of the APA need to listen to the public outcry and...

Several well-known researchers recently made unexpected arguments on pedophilia at an academic conference in Baltimore. Liberty Counsel Action's Matt Barber attended the conference and says he felt he was on a different planet, as the presenting professionals aimed to remove pedophilia from the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). That would mean that pedophilia would no longer be considered a mental disorder. "The entire focus of the event was on the victimhood of the pedophile," Barber accounts. There was "very little concern for the children who are the victims of these individuals when they...

(VOV) - The fine relationship between the US and Vietnam plays an important role in maintaining peace and stability in the region, said US Republican senator, John McCain at a meeting with Vietnamese ambassador to the US, Le Cong Phung in Phoenix, Arizona. Senator McCain said that the US-Vietnam relationship has made significant progress, especially in economics, defence and education in recent years. He said he is proud of being able to contribute to accelerating normalizing the relationship between the two countries and emphasized the need to develop the relationship into a strategic partnership.

Though many Christians are going to try to deny "the obvious," evangelical leader Dr. Albert Mohler believes gay marriage is going to become normalized. "I think it's clear that something like same-sex marriage is going to become normalized, legalized and recognized in the culture. It's time for Christians to start thinking about how we're going to deal with that," he said Friday on the Focus on the Family radio program. Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was speaking in response to the Obama administration's decision this week to stop defending the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act – federal...

Iran's Oil Mafia April 16, 2007 Frontpagemagazine.com Hassan Daioleslam Robert William (Bob) Ney is a current federal prisoner and a former Ohio Congressman from 1995 until November 3, 2006. Ney pled guilty to charges of conspiracy and making false statements in relation to the Jack Abramoff lobbying and bribery scandal. Ney reportedly received bribes from Abramoff, other lobbyists, and two foreign businessmen - a felon and an arms dealer - in exchange for using his position to advance their interests. Conspicuously missing from this dossier of disservice to the country was Ney’s assistance in the creation of a Washington-based lobbying...