Free Republic

Federal agents found evidence in 2016 that Hunter Biden connected prospective Chinese business partners with then-Vice President Joe Biden during the vice president’s official trip to Beijing aboard Air Force Two, IRS whistleblower emails obtained by the House Ways and Means Committee show. Breitbart News Senior Contributor Peter Schweizer first reported that Hunter flew on Air Force Two in 2013 with Joe Biden to China. Ten days after the trip, Hunter’s firm raked in millions from a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China. “They got to meet Dad. All very good. Talk later,” Hunter emailed in December 2013,...

Vatican and FBI: Two interesting partners in smearing Latin Mass CatholicsOn this week's episode of Faith & Reason, John-Henry Westen and Liz Yore provide the latest news and up-to-date reaction on the FBI memo targeting 'radical' Latin Mass Catholics, the Synod on Synodality, the pressure on African bishops to support the decriminalization of sodomy, and Hungary standing up to European Union globalists and their radical pro-LGBT agenda. Although the FBI claims to have “retracted” the memo, the original whistleblower is saying it is still circulating on its internal servers. On Friday, the USCCB also put out a curious statement on...

Former President Barack Obama, 60, and former First Lady Michelle, 58, are looking at new podcast deals with companies aside from their current partner Spotify, a report claimed Thursday, as the former first couple’s current three-year agreement runs out. Three podcast industry sources told Insider the duo’s Higher Ground Audio company inked a multi-year deal with the music and podcast streaming giant back in June 2019, but sources say it can be a struggle getting the go-ahead for broadcast.

Marriage better supports individual and social wellbeing, and the government can and should reinforce its value through economic incentives. Cohabitation, not so much.In the wake of the sexual revolution, the increasing popularity of cohabitation is an alarming trend. Cohabitation, the practice of a romantically involved couple living together while unmarried, has doubled since 1995, with 12 percent of adults under the age of 30 living with their sexual partners. As cohabitation has become more accepted by Americans, there is also increasing support (from 65 percent of American adults, to be precise) for cohabitating couples receiving the same economic and tax...

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – Syria’s Kurds “have been great partners,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday evening in Washington DC, as he addressed a conference of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA.)Pompeo affirmed that the Kurds would be party to negotiations over Syria’s political future.“We are now driving,” he said, stressing that last word, “to make sure that they have a seat at the table.”Pompeo is the most senior US official to affirm a long-term commitment to Syria’s Kurds.Previously, Amb. James Jeffrey, who was appointed Pompeo’s Representative for Syria Engagement in late August,...

Canadian mass media and information company Thomson Reuters has announced a crypto asset data partnership with cryptocurrency tracking resource CryptoCompare, according to a July 31 press release. As the press release explains, CryptoCompare will now provide order book and trade data on 50 cryptocurrencies for Reuters’ financial desktop platform Eikon, which is aimed at institutional investors. Sam Chadwick, the director of strategy in innovation and blockchain at Reuters, noted in the press release that the “decline in the price of many of the leading cryptocurrencies during 2018” has not lessened the “increasing demand from our customers for pricing coverage of...

Full title: 'You are once again united and keeping the peace': Police dog which broke hearts when it placed its paw on its partner's coffin dies four years after the officer was shot dead Figo the German shepherd was a K-9 officer with Bardstown police He was seen resting his paw on the casket of fallen officer Jason Ellis at the May 2013 funeral service in Bardstown, Kentucky Ellis, a drug enforcement officer, was killed by multiple shotgun blasts in what police say was a planned ambush on the 33-year-old father-of-two His killer has never been found A retired police...

If the U.S. intelligence community believes that Russia poses a greater cyber spying threat than China, what will it make of this? Russia and China signed a cyber-security deal on Friday, which experts say could firm up Russia’s ties with the east and may become a foundation for binding cyber security ties in the future. According to the text of the agreement posted on the Russian government’s website on Wednesday, Russia and China agree to not conduct cyber-attacks against each other, as well as jointly counteract technology that may “destabilize the internal political and socio-economic atmosphere,” ”disturb public order” or...

DADE CITY -- Two women found themselves in some trouble after they took longer than expected to complete an obstacle course race this weekend. Deputies said Brianna Lake, 26, and Christina Clemons, 28, were among the thousands of people participating in the Savage Race, a five-mile event full of obstacles and mud. The problem? Deputies said the women, who are domestic partners, brought their 7-year-old daughter with them and left her alone as they headed off onto the course. Deputies said it took Lake and Clemons five hours to finish the race. During that time, deputies said race officials found...

GLAAD is criticizing a Utah NBC affiliate’s decision not to broadcast The New Normal this fall. "While audiences, critics and advertisers have all supported LGBT stories, KSL is demonstrating how deeply out of touch it is with the rest of the country,” the group's president says. Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler's new comedy, which tells the story of a single mother who becomes a surrogate for a same-sex couple, was deemed “inappropriate” by Salt Lake City-based KSL-TV. "Same-sex families are a beloved part of American television thanks to shows like Modern Family, Glee and Grey’s Anatomy," GLAAD president Herndon Graddick...

The New Normal has been canceled after one season at NBC. The semi-autobiographical comedy from Glee's Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler marked Murphy's first half-hour comedy and aired as part of NBC's Tuesday comedy block. Boosted by The Voice, the Justin Bartha-Andrew Rannells starrer about a gay couple starting a family earned a full-season order in October despite early protests from conservative watchdog groups.

It's been a rough end to what started out as a record-breaking season for openly gay characters on the small screen. After a 2012-13 season that featured a record number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters on TV, this past week's wave of cancellations may drastically alter those statistics. Gone are shows that featured prominent gay story lines including NBC's The New Normal and CBS' Partners. Both were semi-autobiographical series about the lives of its nearly all openly gay creators -- Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler on the former, David Kohan (who's not) and Max Mutchnik for the latter...

It's been a rough end to what started out as a record-breaking season for openly gay characters on the small screen.

The Obama administration is giving a new health benefit to same-sex partners — and it’s built on one of the most popular provisions of “Obamacare.” On Friday, the administration published a proposed rule that would extend one of the health care law’s best-known provisions — allowing children to stay on their parents’ health plans until age 26 — to same-sex partners of federal workers.

“Look, the Taliban, per se, is not our enemy.” - VP Joe Biden December 2011 Two weeks ago the White House told us that the Taliban was not our enemy. Iran Press TV reported that nine missiles were launched in the attack on Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. There were initial reports of several casualties. UPDATE: Press TV has more on the attack: The U.S. Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan came under 2 missile attacks on Saturday, as the American soldiers were celebrating the New Year’s Eve. Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they have fired 9...

Anita Perry, the 59-year-old wife of Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, has been very actively campaigning for him on her own all fall. Now, she's taken on a new assignment. Mrs. Perry has launched an online drive to recruit hundreds of volunteers for what she calls the Perry Strike Force. This would consist of Perry fans who would travel to Iowa and work across the state Jan. 2-4, getting out Perry caucus-goers to the hundreds of meeting sites on the evening of Jan. 3. (Don't worry, the BCS Championship Game is not until Jan. 9 this time.) "With over 1,700...

Beijing officials reaffirmed China's commitment to the euro currency and the European economy as uncertainty grows over whether E.U. officials can quickly recover from their debt crisis. In a statement to reporters, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he hopes Europe has the ability and wisdom to overcome its debt crisis and ensure the safety of Chinese investments. Approximately 25 percent of China's huge $2.8 trillion foreign exchange reserves are invested in euro-dominated assets, making Beijing vulnerable if the currency declines. While some analysts say China must stay the course despite deepening crisis in member states such as Italy and...

The White House on Thursday is expected to unveil its proposal to enhance the nation's cybersecurity, laying out plans to require industry to better protect systems that run critical infrastructure like the electrical grid, financial systems and nuclear power plants. The Obama administration also is insisting that companies tell consumers when their personal information has been compromised. According to cybersecurity experts familiar with the plan, the administration's proposed legislation also would instruct federal agencies to more closely monitor their computer networks. Several House and Senate committees have been working on cybersecurity legislation for the past two years, while waiting for...

RANCHI, India -- An engineering student was in police custody Thursday after allegedly slicing his girlfriend's head off with a ceremonial dagger in front of her classmates at an Indian university. Bijendra Kumar, 23, a diploma student at St. Xavier's College in Ranchi, in eastern India, allegedly beheaded his 18-year-old girlfriend, Khushbu, with a blade known as a "khukri" as she left the classroom with her friends. The Hindustan Times reported that Kumar was overpowered by students and security guards, beaten and then arrested by police after the attack Wednesday.

Last week the U.S. Dept. of Justice, at U.S. taxpayer expense, transported a Lieutenant Colonel of Fidel Castro’s KGB-trained secret police named Roberto Hernandez-Caballero to a U.S. courtroom. The U.S. State Dept. classifies Cuba as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism,” and Fidel Castro classifies the U.S. as “the Great Enemy of Mankind!” A former regime-colleague of Hernandez-Caballero sits in a U.S. federal prison after conviction in “the the most damaging spy scandal against the U.S. since the end of the Cold War.” Her name is Ana Montes and she was convicted in a different U.S. courtroom of the same crimes...