Free Republic

The NYPD’s controversial practice of raiding Big Apple nightspots is being put to bed, city officials said Thursday — following years of complaints from local businesses. A new policy, announced by Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday, would replace the Giuliani-era MARCH initiative — or Multi-Agency Response to Community Hotspots — that led to cops storming into bars and clubs for surprise inspections during business hours. “Today, we are changing the way we engage with nightlife establishments by opening direct lines of communication with local businesses and giving them a chance to correct issues before enforcement takes place,” Adams said

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is making a surprise trip to Israel to show solidarity with the Jewish state as it battles Hamas terrorists following a massive Oct. 7 attack that killed over 1,400 people, wounded well over 4,000, and saw over 200 kidnapped. The San Francisco Chronicle reported: California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a surprise trip to Israel on Thursday ahead of a previously announced trip the Democratic governor is taking to China. “The governor adjusted his planned international trip and will briefly visit Israel ahead of going to China,” spokesperson Erin Mellon said in a statement Thursday. “While...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a surprise commencement address to graduates from Johns Hopkins University on Thursday morning. Zelensky appeared via livestream and also received an honorary doctorate degree from the university’s president at the commencement, The Baltimore Sun reported. “One of the most common truisms on Earth is the advice to value or at least not waste time,” Zelensky said in the address, adding, “Every person eventually realizes that time is the most valuable resource on the planet, not oil or uranium, not lithium or anything else, but time.”

Though unapologetically progressive, the 53-year-old former lawyer never shrinks from fighting with the left. A week before the 2020 election, he quit The Intercept, the online news organization he co-founded in 2014, because, by his own account, it refused to run a story unless he "remove[d] all sections critical of" Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Denouncing what he called "the pathologies, illiberalism, and repressive mentality" that led him to be "censored" by his own media outlet, Greenwald railed that "these are the viruses that have contaminated virtually every mainstream center-left political organization, academic institution, and newsroom."

Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich is dropping out of the Democratic race for president. Kucinich will make the announcement Friday at a news conference in Cleveland.......

Next week we will have the "October Suprise" from the Bush/Kerry camp. Does anyone want to make any predictions?

Surprise find has archeologists smiling December 21 2003 at 06:03PM Cairo - French archeologists have discovered 19 mummies as well as wood and limestone sarcophagi in an ancient Egyptian burial ground south of the capital, antiquities officials said Sunday. The secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawwas, said in a statement that a mission from the Louvre Museum in Paris found the antiquities in the Saqqara region, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Cairo. Also found were statuettes and pieces of fabric, he added. These items date to the Late Dynastic Period, or about 1 000...

North Korea makes surprise request for direct negotiations with South By David Usborne in New York 21 April 2003 The stand-off with North Korea over its alleged nuclear weapons ambitions took another unexpected turn yesterday when the regime of Kim Jong Il proposed holding direct talks with South Korea later this month. Officials from the North made the request in a telephone call to counterparts from the South at the border village of Panmunjom. They asked for cabinet-level talks between the two Koreas in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, from 27 to 29 April. The approach came just one day...

Has US swallowed Turkish surprise? March 22 2003 at 01:41AM By Orhan Coskun Ankara - Turkey said on Friday it had agreed to allow United States warplanes to overfly Turkish territory in attacks on Iraq, but rejected American demands it keep its troops out of the Kurdish-controlled north. Parliament approved the overflights on Thursday as the US unleashed its attack on Iraq. But Ankara then linked use of airspace to free access for its troops to Iraq. The United States, which sees an attack from the north as a way of relieving the burden on an invasion force now pressing...

DRUDGE JUST ANNOUNCED TERROR ALERT ON PEARL HARBOR; GERTZ TO BE ON AIR SOON

Friday, 24 January, 2003, 13:05 GMT Iraq war reports 'no surprise' - No 10 Weapons inspectors give their key report on Monday Iraq's reported preparations for a chemical war would fit with Saddam Hussein's efforts to hide weapons of mass destruction, Downing Street has said. Iraqi documents obtained by BBC Radio 4's Today programme suggest Baghdad is equipping key military units with protection against chemical weapons. Tony Blair's official spokesman said he could not confirm the reports, but the findings would be no surprise. There are growing signs of increasing opposition within the United Nations Security Council to possible war...