Free Republic

Darren Beattie, the State Department’s acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, is being criticized for some alarming statements he has posted on social media regarding sterilization and population control. The Independent reported on numerous odd and even disturbing social media posts authored by Beattie — some less than one year ago. In 2021, he wrote, “Interesting moral universe we live in where abortion is celebrated, but the notion of giving smart people incentives or cash to start families is so far out of overton window no sitting politician of either party would dare advocate it.” He repeated a...

A US medic in charge of the care of hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline tells World Affairs Editor Sam Kiley near Konstantinyvka how Russia does not commit to ceasefires, her fury at Trump’s betrayal and why Ukraine will never give up. [Video at link]

President Donald Trump claimed in part two of a televised interview that the nearly three-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine that started when Moscow’s forces kicked off an invasion in 2022 was the fault of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s failure to preemptively capitulate before Russian troops began their attack.Trump made the incendiary comments in a pre-taped interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that aired Thursday on Hannity’s program.After Hannity asked about Trump’s threat to impose tariffs as a penalty on Russia if the Ukrainian war continues much longer, Trump responded that Zelensky “has had enough” and “wants to settle”...

Seven law enforcement officials, who conducted an armed raid of the rapper Afroman’s home in August 2022, are now suing him for invasion of privacy. Afroman used footage from the raid in his music videos and allegedly included it in merchandise and social media posts. The members of the Adams County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio have filed a lawsuit against the rapper – real name Joseph Foreman – claiming the footage, which shows their faces, has caused “emotional distress, embarrassment, ridicule, loss of reputation and humiliation”. According to court documents seen by The Independent, Afroman himself was not present during...

When oligarchs attack: Moment Russian media mogul Lebvedev 'neutralised' fellow billionaire on TV By Ted Thornhill Last updated at 1:30 AM on 19th September 2011 Alexander Lebedev, who owns The Independent and Evening Standard, unleashed a flurry of punches on another businessman taking part in a TV debate on the global economic crisis. In front of an astonished studio audience, the Russian billionaire landed a series of blows on oligarch Sergei Polonsky's head, knocking him off his chair. Afterwards Lebedev claimed that he’d had to ‘neutralise’ Polonsky because he feared he was going to be hit first. The incredible scene...

<p>Police report that multiple arrests have been made related to the protest as Mayor Jim Watson warns that someone may get killed or seriously injured because of the irresponsible behaviour of some of those involved.</p>

There’s something idiosyncratically American about Joe Rogan. Maybe it’s his frat-boyish persona. His passions for hunting and extreme sports. Perhaps, most of all, Joe Rogan embodies some whimsical notion of the American Dream: a college dropout turned stand-up comedian, who worked his way up to become one of the world’s media titans....Last year, it was Spotify’s most-streamed podcast globally, in the US and the UK. Rogan is, anyone would have to admit, quite the big deal. And yet, he is a polarising figure. A staunch libertarian, Rogan has faced accusations of sexism and transphobia over remarks made on the podcast....

The former head of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Christopher Krebs, said that the Republican Party was in a “death spiral” owing to its allegiance to former President Donald Trump. Mr Krebs, who famously contradicted Mr Trump’s claims about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election before being terminated from his post last year, is a self-described lifelong member of the GOP. On Sunday, he spoke with CBS’s Face the Nation about his party and the former president’s ongoing efforts to sow distrust about US voting systems. “This is a death spiral. They’ve lost control, and they...

A malevolent media continues its sick slander of Israel. Israeli soldiers arrest Palestinian children for the “crime” of picking flowers and vegetables located on a Jewish outpost in the West Bank. You can read about this highly implausible event here: “Fact Check: Did Israeli Soldiers Arrest Palestinian Youths for ‘Picking Flowers’?,” by Emanuel Miller, Algemeiner, March 24, 2021: Did Israeli soldiers arrest Palestinian youths recently for the “crime” of picking flowers and vegetables located on a Jewish outpost in the West Bank?That’s exactly the story being propagated by the Associated Press (AP) in a piece based entirely on a video...

Donald Trump has lashed out at Republican leaders on Capitol Hill for moving forward with hearings over controversial changes to the US Postal Service during next week’s Republican National Convention. The president wrote in a tweet: “Why are Republicans allowing the Democrats to have ridiculous Post Office hearings on Saturday & Monday, just before and during our Convention. Let them hold them NOW (during their Convention) or after our Convention is over.”

A cheap steroid called dexamethasone has been found to reduce the risk of death by up to one-third among coronavirus patients with severe respiratory complications, University of Oxford researchers have said.

<p>Two Republican senators have split from their colleagues in calling for Donald Trump’s alleged rape of the author E. Jean Carroll to be investigated. Carrol, an advice columnist for Elle magazine, claims in an upcoming book about “hideous men” in her life that the US president forced himself on her in a changing room at New York’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1995 or 1996. She describes a “colossal struggle” in which Mr Trump entered her “halfway – or completely, I’m not certain”.</p>

Link only due to copyright issues: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-approval-ratings-poll-race-relations-white-men-republicans-nationalist-a8649091.html

Breitbart News reporter Warner Todd Huston was recently suspended from Twitter for stating his belief that transgender people suffer from mental illness. Breitbart News reporter Warner Todd Huston was recently locked out of his Twitter account following his reply to a tweet published by the Independent. The Independent‘s tweet related to Sheila Jeffreys, an Australian academic and feminist who claims that transgender woman are not real women. Jeffreys described transgender rights movements as: “[One of many] internet exploited sexual fetishes that try to make themselves a rights movement.”

<p>The co-author of Donald Trump’s memoir The Art of the Deal has predicted the US President is going to resign by autumn if not sooner.</p> <p>Mr Schwartz, who has been a vocal critic of President Trump and spent 18 months interviewing and shadowing him in the 1980's, suggested he would negotiate a deal for immunity in the Russia investigation in exchange for giving up his seat in the Oval Office.</p>

A previous British minister to Moscow has uncovered that he talked about corrupt affirmations against Donald Trump with one of the President Elect's most despised adversaries - who later took the notorious 'grimy dossier' to the leader of the FBI. The archive, which has opened up a profound discretionary emergency, was conveyed to FBI boss James Comey by Republican John McCain. Presently Sir Andrew Wood - British envoy to Moscow in the vicinity of 1995 and 2000 - has affirmed he met McCain, a blunt pundit of the President Elect, at a security meeting in Canada in November. The two...

Many publications are falsely claiming Trump is totally ignorant and blank on whether Britain should leave the EU or not ("Brexit"). The logic is that Trump saying "huh"? to a single word verbal question (that might not have been enunciated well or heard clearly with Trump's 69 year old hearing) is proof of ignorance on the subject, showing a lack of foreign policy concern and awareness. Yet a 10 second google search reveals that Trump has commented on "Brexit" several times in the recent past. It seems a 10 second net search is too high of a journalism standard when...

A cartoon that won first prize in Britain depicts Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon eating the head of a Palestinian baby with a burning city in the background. Ariel Sharon depicted devouring a Palestinian baby in British prize-winning cartoon Published in the Independent newspaper of London, the cartoon was one of 35 entries in the British Political Cartoon Society's annual competition, reported the Israeli daily Haaretz. The Cartoon of the Year competition is sponsored by the Independent.

1. McCain Should Be Feared, Writer Says Presidential hopeful John McCain is being billed as the Republican that liberals can live with, but his credentials as a “bipartisan progressive” are in fact a “lazy, hazy myth,” according to liberal pundit Johann Hari. “The truth is that McCain is the candidate we should most fear,” writes Hari, a columnist for The Independent in Britain, in an article that appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “Not only is he to the right of Bush on a whole range of subjects, he is also the Republican candidate most likely to dispense with Hillary Clinton...