Free Republic

“Let’s stop the third atomic bomb with our hands, in the hands of the Japanese people!” April 13, 2024, will be etched in the annals of modern Japanese history as tens of thousands of citizens across the nation came together in a series of pandemic rallies. From the bustling streets of Ikebukuro to the gatherings at Higashi-Ikebukuro Central Park, the sheer scale of participation speaks volumes. Organizers aimed for a monumental turnout of 100,000 protesters to demand answers on crucial issues, such as the stark increase in excess deaths and the lack of transparency on the adverse effects following vaccinations....

The future of Cuba and the trajectory of communism are under threat, with citizens fighting back against the regime. Protesters are taking to the streets amid an ongoing economic crisis, making their concerns heard. Cuba’s communist leadership is facing a fierce backlash that has not been seen since similar protests in July 2021. Since the 2021 protests, it is estimated that nearly 500,000 Cubans have sought refuge in the United States. In this Sky News Digital Originals, we explore whether Cuba’s communist leadership could be about to tumble. “The Cuban regime knows the Cuban people are getting smarter and they're...

Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered across the nation Monday, including in the Seattle area, blocking landmarks and highways to bring attention to the war in the Middle East. The expressway to the Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) Airport was blocked by protesters for several hours. Subsequently, 46 people have been arrested, according to spokesperson for the Port of Seattle Perry Cooper. Cooper said those arrested have been sent to SCORE for processing. However, he said, more people may be arrested as an investigation continues.

Protesters against the American response to the Israel-Hamas war shut down a pair of freeways in the Bay Area during the Monday morning rush hour, including blocking traffic on the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Southbound U.S. Highway 101 across the bridge and northbound Interstate 880 in nearby Oakland were blocked starting around 7:30 a.m. PDT on Monday, California Highway Patrol said. Protesters carried signs reading “Stop Arming Israel” and “Bay Area Demands No Murder for Profit,” in reference to American military support for Israel.

Jordanian authorities have clamped down on participants in the daily protests against the Israeli war on Gaza, amid accusations that Hamas has a role in igniting them. Thousands have been protesting daily in Ramadan in front of the Israeli embassy in the capital, Amman, demanding its closure and an end to normalisation with Israel in response to its atrocities in Gaza. The protests continued even though the embassy has no diplomatic mission, following the departure of Israel's ambassador in October and Jordan's recalling of its ambassador in protest of the Israeli war on Gaza. Jordanian authorities have been caught off...

Israel faces the prospect of a U.S.-backed “color revolution” in the middle of its war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza as the opposition backs street protests against government, and a key cabinet minister has demanded new elections. A “color revolution” is a coup d’état accomplished through mass protests targeting the existing government, elected or not, with the assistance of the media — and, usually, with backing from foreign powers, including the United States. For the six months since the October 7 terror attack, Israel had seen remarkable unity, with protests — mostly centered in Tel Aviv — against Israeli Prime...

Anger over the increase to the federal carbon price led to protests across the country Monday, including several that stalled traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway and at provincial border crossings. Ottawa’s planned $15-per-tonne increase in the federal consumer carbon price came into effect Monday, bringing the levy to $80 per tonne. That translates to the carbon price on fuel rising from about $0.14 to almost $0.18, bringing a litre of gasoline up 3.3 cents per litre on average. Speaking outside a gas station in Nanaimo, B.C., Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called Monday’s increase a “cruel April Fool’s Day joke on...

The crisis in Cuba has seen its government approach the United Nations for aid to address its food shortage, as residents take to the streets in a rare sign of social unrest Cuba is "on the verge of total collapse" as the country has been hit by blackouts with residents taking to the streets calling for "food and power". The crisis has seen the Cuban government approach the United Nations for aid to address its food shortage. As the Caribbean island goes through its harshest economic crisis in three decades, the communist regime is resorting to hitherto unseen cries for...

The Cuban government has summoned the US ambassador, Benjamin Ziff, to its foreign ministry, accusing Washington of stoking a protest which saw hundreds of people take to the streets in the island’s second city of Santiago de Cuba. The demonstration late on Sunday was a rare public show of disenchantment against Cuba’s communist government, and was apparently led by parents struggling to feed their children in the face of a worsening food crisis. The protesters reportedly chanted: “Without electricity and food, the people get hot.” Power cuts of up to 18 hours a day have meant that as the island...

If your print copy of The New York Post was slightly delayed yesterday morning you can blame the “peace” brigade. The same people who have spent the last few months blocking bridges and stopping New Yorkers getting to work yesterday morning targeted one of this paper’s printing works in Queens. The plant also prints The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, USA Today and the New York Times. The protestors seemed especially angry about the last of these. Though I’m tempted to say that they deserve each other. In the early hours of the morning these protestors lay across the road and...

House Republicans released 5,000 hours more of security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol on Friday, but Speaker Mike Johnson announced -- in a reversal -- that the House Administration Committee will no longer blur the faces of individuals in the footage.

Following a federal court ruling against the Canadian government for using the Emergencies Act during the trucker convoy, several plaintiffs plan to sue.. Several Freedom Convoy protesters, buoyed by a recent victory in Canadian federal court, said they’re preparing to sue the federal government, banks, and the police that brought the 2022 protest to a heated end. “I think it’s the second phase to what took place with the federal court case,” military veteran and plaintiff Eddie Cornell said. “We’ve got a big hill to climb, but it’s something that’s necessary. It has to be done.” On Jan. 23, Federal...

STOCKHOLM (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron was welcomed Tuesday with pomp and ceremony at the start of a two-day state visit to Sweden during which he will meet Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and the Scandinavian country’s monarch, King Carl XVI Gustaf. Macron and his wife, Brigitte, were greeted by the king in the inner courtyard of the downtown Stockholm royal castle that is the official residence of the Swedish royals. There, Macron and Carl Gustaf reviewed members of the Grenadier Guards that had lined up. Macron noted that it had been too long since a French president visited Sweden...

A wave of dissent is sweeping across France as farmers, truckers, and construction workers join forces to protest against President Macron’s globalist policies. Frustrations have reached a tipping point, leading to a 5-day blockade around Paris, where all goods entering the city are being halted. The farmers, in particular, have voiced their discontent with Macron’s net-zero agenda, and this unified protest signifies a significant stand against what many perceive as overreaching policies. The dissent is not confined to France alone, as similar revolts are reportedly gaining momentum across Europe.

Two years ago, I wrote a column denouncing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of a counter-terrorism law to shut down the Freedom Convoy trucker protests as an authoritarian attack on free speech. Now, a Canadian court has agreed and ruled that the use of the Emergencies Act was unlawful and “unreasonable.” Despite Trudeau’s attacks on civil liberties, he remains a favorite of the media as an iconic figure on the left. Various civil liberties groups have opposed the iron-handed measures of Trudeau, including The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Constitution Foundation. The characterization of political critics as...

Saturday, on the third anniversary of the January 6, 2021, demonstration on Capitol Hill, the FBI arrested three "fugitives" from justice in Florida. Jonathan Daniel Pollock, Olivia Michele Pollock, and Joseph Daniel Hutchinson III were arrested on a ranch near Groveland, Florida. Jonathan Pollock--were one fool enough to believe everything the FBI claims--might arguably have been worth a three-year manhunt. I mean, he punched a cop or two; that's surely a threat to the republic. I mean, what if the George Floyd rioters in Portland had gotten away with punching cops? The charges against the other two were so chickensh**...

The symbolism that German farmers chose to express their discontent with the government in the first days of the new year was as unambiguous as it was ominous: by the side of rural roads across the country, there were sightings of makeshift gallows dangling traffic-light signs, a reference to the colours of the three governing parties. The chilling sculptures are harbingers of unprecedented cross-sector protests and strikes hitting German roads and railways from Monday, and speak of a dramatic change of mood in a country long feted for its consensus-seeking approach to industrial relations, especially compared with its more traditionally...

HONG KONG—For months now, I’ve been told that Hong Kong’s protests would end soon. They’ll end when school starts, I heard during the summer. School did start, but the protests wore on, only now I saw high-school students in crisp school uniforms joining the protesters’ ranks. Next, the mask ban of early October was supposed to slow protesters down, but the very first day after that ban, I watched streams of protesters in masks and helmets make their way to their usual haunts on Hong Kong Island. The government shut down many of the subway lines that day, a practice...

Evidence continues to point to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) as the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Meanwhile, based on the now publicized emails sent to and from Dr. Fauci, it has become evident that there was a strong push to downplay this theory and convince the world the virus evolved naturally. The story grew thicker on Thursday. According to a report from Vanity Fair, last March, leading scientists aggressively tried to silence former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield after stating his belief on CNN that the virus originated from a lab in Wuhan. Following his public...

Unjustly lost amid the din of pro-Palestinian protests around the world, and notably in European capitals such Paris, London, and even Athens, is the noise that a number of Iranians are making in favor of Israel and against Hamas. One such, Ghorbani Niyak, stated on X: “We, the British Iranians and the people of Iran along with the rest of the diaspora stand with the people of Israel and we condemn all terroristic attacks on civilians; we condemn Hamas and we condemn the anti-Semitic behavior that we are witnessing en masse in the West.”That statement was posted alongside a video...