Free Republic

The victory of Viktor Orbán and his party Fidesz in the Hungarian elections last month elicited the predictable flurry of laments over the rise of illiberalism. Such coverage has tended to emphasize the Orbán government’s animosity towards the Hungarian-American financier George Soros, a prolific contributor to progressive causes in Hungary and around the world. Soros is best known for his Open Society Foundation to which he donated $18 billion last year, his association with the Clintons, and as the financial speculator “who broke the Bank of England” in 1992. But he’s also come to be regarded as a leader of...

With the pointless war of choice in Iran going poorly, the Trump administration has declared a virtual war on the international criminal court (ICC). Secretary of state, Marco Rubio, vowed on Monday to “dismantle” the court as a supposed threat to US sovereignty. His rationale is laced with sophistry. The administration’s real goal is to secure impunity for war crimes, even those committed on the territory of ICC member states. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed and a video posted on X, Rubio conjures up a dystopia in which local American officials such as police officers or border patrol agents...

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, launched a campaign to dismantle the International criminal court (ICC) on Monday, claiming that the global tribunal was interfering with US military and law enforcement operations at the risk of American sovereignty. Rubio invoked images of US Border Patrol agents and elected leaders being “dragged before an international court” and tried by judges from around the world in a lengthy op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal Monday. “If we stand idle, all of them will be at the mercy of foreign judges, thousands of miles away – facing the constant risk of...

Denmark’s foreign minister had the top U.S. diplomat in the country summoned for talks after the main national broadcaster reported Wednesday that at least three people with connections to President Donald Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland. Trump has repeatedly said he seeks U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, a vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. He has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island. Denmark, a NATO ally of the U.S., and Greenland have said the island is not for sale and condemned reports of the U.S. gathering intelligence there.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday it’s taking U.S. taxpayer dollars away from 66 globalist organizations, nearly half of them affiliated with the United Nations and all of which are identified as “contrary to the interests of the United States.” Most notable is the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the parent treaty underpinning all major international climate agreements, AFP reports. The treaty adopted in 1992 is a global pact by nations to cooperate to drive down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of so-called “climate change.” A despairing European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said the...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a presidential memorandum directing the U.S. to withdraw from 66 international organizations that the White House said no longer serve American interests. The White House said the directive orders all executive departments and agencies to stop participating in and funding 35 non-United Nations organizations and 31 U.N. entities that the administration concluded operate contrary to U.S. national interests, security, economic prosperity, or sovereignty. The White House said the action follows a review of every international intergovernmental organization, convention, and treaty that the U.S. belongs to, funds, or otherwise supports. The White House said the...

With all votes counted, right-wing historian Karol Nawrocki has been elected Poland's new president, the state electoral commission (PKW) said. PKW said Nawrocki won 50.9% percent of the votes – ahead of Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski on 49.1% percent. It's a sensational turnaround from the result of the first exit poll – published immediately after voting ended at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Sunday – that showed Trzaskowski winning on 50.3% to Nawrocki's 49.7%. Trzaskowski had claimed victory after the first exit poll, while Nawrocki cautioned that the results were too close to call. "We won, although the...

"Clinton State Department Working With 'Advocacy Groups' to Prepare 'Human Rights' Report on U.S. to Give to U.N." Friday, March 12, 2010 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that the State Department is soliciting comments from citizens, advocacy groups and other non-governmental organizations on the human rights record of the United States. “Human rights are universal, but their experience is local. This is why we are committed to holding everyone to the same standard, including ourselves,” Clinton told a press briefing at the State Department, where she unveiled the...

Trump signs executive order to withdraw from the World Health Organization

Fortunately, the Constitution should still operate to prevent a leftist administration from handing to the UN American sovereignty and Americans’ rights. When five different people send you a link, you know that something very important has happened, even if the drive-by media aren’t trumpeting it on their outlets. In this case, it’s Robert Williams’ report at the Gatestone Institute that, in September, the Harris-Biden administration, without fanfare, adopted a UN pact that gives the UN and the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) control over American speech, foreign policy, and, possibly, internal sovereignty. Thankfully, while the administration can sign someone’s name on...

World leaders at the United Nations Summit have officially adopted the so-called “Pact for the Future,” a sweeping agreement that purportedly aims to address the world’s most pressing issues. However, beneath its glossy promises lies a dangerous move towards centralized, top-down control that could have devastating consequences for individual freedoms, national sovereignty, and democratic governance. The Pact, hailed by the UN Secretary-General as a “vision for the future,” includes initiatives like the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations. But for many, this reads more like a manifesto for totalitarian governance than a collaborative effort to improve international...

The proposals, according to summaries issued by the House and Senate, include ensuring workers can receive exemptions from employer-required vaccinations; preventing government employers from requiring workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19; reinforcing the state’s so-called “Parents Bill of Rights” law to shield schoolchildren from mask and vaccination mandates; moving toward withdrawing from federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration oversight; and prohibiting the state surgeon general from forcing people to be vaccinated.

Freedom from income taxes is among New Hampshire's delights: The Granite State is one of just nine that don't tax ordinary income. Of course, that benefit doesn't apply to New Hampshire residents who commute to work across the Massachusetts border. Income earned inside Massachusetts by an out-of-state resident is subject to Massachusetts taxes.What about a New Hampshire resident who used to commute to Massachusetts?A no-brainer, surely. If you don't live in Massachusetts, and you no longer work in Massachusetts, then Massachusetts has no right to tax your earnings. What could be more self-evident?Until last spring, that was the law. The...

With far more political acuity than critics expected, President George Bush disarmed world government proponents while promising more aid to developing nations. The U.N.'s High Level Panel on Financing Development concluded its four-day conference in Monterrey, Mexico, without explicit authorization for U.N. taxes on currency exchange, fossil fuels and a host of other tax targets. The conference, publicized as a poverty-reducing initiative, was, in fact, another effort by the U.N. to gain taxing authority. Ernesto Zedillo, head of the U.N. panel, issued a report on June 28, calling for the new taxing authority. U.S. delegates to the conference made it...

Britain’s seat at the UN Security Council will eventually be handed to the European Union, Lord Malloch Brown, the Foreign Office Minister, has suggested. The former diplomat was brought in by Gordon Brown to help to overhaul foreign policy was already under fire for suggesting that Britain and America would no longer be “joined at the hip”. He faces fresh controversy after it emerged that last October, when he was Deputy General Secretary of the UN, he spoke approvingly of growing EU representation on a visit to Brussels last October. According to a report by the EU Observer, he told...

How an Americanist devoted to destroying international alliances became the US envoy to the UNIn the heat of the battle over the Florida vote after the 2000 US presidential election, a burly, mustachioed man burst into the room where the ballots for Miami-Dade County were being tabulated, like John Wayne barging into a saloon for a shoot-out. "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count," drawled John Bolton. And those ballots from Miami-Dade were not counted.Now that same John Bolton has been named by President Bush as the US ambassador to the UN. "If I were...

Law: President Obama's nominee for State Department legal adviser could be a future Supreme Court pick. He believes U.S. law should be based on foreign precedent, and even Shariah law could find a home here.We have commented many times on the opinion of a number of U.S. Supreme Court justices that American jurists should include foreign law and precedent in their decisions. In several prominent cases, this has already happened. In a speech in South Africa, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the March 2005 Roper v. Simmons decision, in which a 5-4 majority ruled against executing murderers who were 17...

NEW YORK, June 26, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is calling for a “multilateral” level of governance with the “teeth” to “function as an instrument of global governance where it is needed.” “The problem is that today’s multilateralism lacks scale, ambition and teeth,” Guterres said during a Thursday press conference on the launch of the UN’s “comprehensive response to COVID-19” — the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China. “And some of the instruments that do have teeth, show little or no appetite to bite, as has recently been the case with the difficulties faced by...

International officials trying to prosecute American military personnel will not be allowed to enter the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday. “We are determined to protect the American, allied, and civilian personnel from living in fear of unjust prosecutions for actions taken to defend our great nation,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. Pompeo’s decision puts personal pressure on the International Criminal Court, a European-based tribunal that is trying to investigate whether “war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed” since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. The top diplomat said that the court, which was...

Last week, the Trump administration in the person of secretary of state Mike Pompeo gave the European international set another swift and deserved kick in the derrière. That's when the secretary of state made it known that the U.S. will not grant visas to members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who attempt to come here to investigate any alleged war crimes by members of the American military in Afghanistan. The ICC has been making noises to that effect. Pompeo also said economic sanctions could follow if the ICC persists. Before getting into the matter, some background on the ICC...