Free Republic

Queen’s University Belfast is to remove the name of former US Senator George Mitchell — one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement — from a peace center following the emergence of new information contained in the Jeffrey Epstein files released on Friday. A bust of Mr. Mitchell will also be removed from the university grounds. Mr. Mitchell chaired the negotiations which led to the 1998 peace agreement. The former senator has a long-standing association with the university where he was chancellor from 1999 to 2009. …

Commentators reacted with shock and disgust to President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theory that a 75-year-old man who was attacked and hospitalized by police last week “could be an ANTIFA provocateur.” Two Buffalo police officers were charged with felony assault for shoving longtime activist Martin Gugino to the ground outside City Hall, resulting in Gugino hitting his head and bleeding from his ear. Gugino remains hospitalized, in “serious but stable” condition, according to his lawyer. Donald J. Trump Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police...

An £18 million ($29 million) EU offer to fund the building of a peace and reconciliation center at the former Maze prison site has been withdrawn. The Democratic Unionists earlier halted plans to build the facility at the Maze, near Lisburn, as relations with their power-sharing partners Sinn Féin deteriorate. Republicans have warned of a crisis facing the devolved administration after a summer of violence on the streets. The European Union had offered the money, but after talks with the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, the body responsible for allocating the finance said it had decided...

Two Moroccans arrested in Italy yesterday wanted to blow up the Milan Cathedral on Christmas. They hoped an attack during the busy holiday would cost dozens of lives. This according to tapped phone calls, reports La Repubblica. The two belonged to an Islamic terror cell which had been followed by the Italian police already for months... Rachid Ilhami (31) and Abdelkader Ghafir (43) were arrested in Giussano, a city 25km away from Milan. The detectives gathered from tapped phone calls and confiscated computer files that the two also prepared attacks on a supermarket and a police bureau. They are arrested...