Free Republic

Washington (AFP) - The US Senate voted Tuesday to slap sanctions on companies working on Russia's Nord Stream pipeline, sending a bill to President Donald Trump that is sure to antagonize European nations counting on the project's natural gas. The measure, inserted into a huge annual defense spending bill, passed 86 to eight after easily clearing the House of Representatives last week. It aims to halt further construction of the $10.6 billion pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea and is set to double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany. The German-Russian Chamber of Commerce said last week the...

Attorneys for Virginia Giuffre, the woman who has accused Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew of using her as a sex slave while she was a minor, filed yet another motion arguing for full disclosure of unreleased documents in the seemingly never-ending case between the alleged victim and Epstein’s close friend and accused madam Ghislaine Maxwell.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that she opposed U.S. sanctions on companies building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline because they have extraterritorial effect. The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed legislation to slap sanctions on companies building the massive underwater pipeline to bring Russian natural gas to Germany, but it was uncertain whether the measures would slow completion of the project.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said he will not support calling any witnesses in the upcoming impeachment trial against President Trump, including witnesses Trump wants to summon. “I’m going to tell the president, ‘no,’ to his witnesses request because I think what is best for the country is to get this behind us as soon as possible,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said Wednesday. The House is set to impeach Trump Wednesday night on two articles charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate will hold a trial in January, and Democrats and Republicans are...

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) launched the debate over the impeachment of President Donald Trump on Wednesday by comparing the Democrats’ struggle to remove him from office to the Battle of the Bulge against Nazi Germany in World War II. Described as “Hitler’s Last Gamble,” the battle began in December 1944, when the Nazis sent 200,000 troops into a surprise attack against American forces. Though the Americans prevailed, 100,000 were killed or wounded over two months of fighting. Pelosi drew an analogy between the impeachment debate and that battle, the largest ever fought by the U.S. Army:

The sanctions target companies that are involved in constructing the massive energy project that will transport Russian gas supplies under the Baltic Sea and deliver them directly to Germany. Under the sanctions, the Trump administration now has 60 days to identify companies and individuals providing services on the pipeline. The sanctions allow Washington to revoke US visas and block the property of these individuals. Those targeted by the sanctions would then have 30 days to wind down their operations.

China’s people want to live in a free society and do not support the ruling Communist Party, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. Additionally, current foreign policy is not aimed at decoupling the United States economically from China but in making sure Beijing competes fairly in the global economic arena, Mr. Pompeo said in an interview with The Washington Times on Wednesday. Mr. Pompeo, a former congressman from Kansas who earlier held the post of CIA director, also said he has no immediate plans to step down and run for the open Senate seat in his home state next year....

... Mr. Rubio, seeing how Mr. Trump has activated new segments of the electorate for Republicans, is trying to devise some policy platform to retain those voters once Mr. Trump is no longer on the ballot. The solution is to copy much of the language and some of the policy views of the left so as to avoid alienating those new voters. The most telling manifestation of this, from both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Rubio, is their approach to productivity and investment. One of their insights is entirely traditional-conservative: Only by boosting productivity can an economy deliver employment and wage...

A former teen model who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein filed a new lawsuit on Thursday against the disgraced movie mogul, his former studio and previous owner Walt Disney Co. Kaja Sokola, a native of Poland who was previously identified only as Jane Doe in an earlier class-action lawsuit, alleged in a new lawsuit filed with the New York State Supreme Court that in 2002, when she was 16 and an aspiring actress, Mr. Weinstein promised to take her to lunch to discuss her career. Instead, the lawsuit says, he took her to his SoHo apartment where...

President Donald Trump is set to sign a new wave of North Korea sanctions into law on Friday night in Washington, a move that could infuriate Pyongyang with just days left before Kim Jong Un’s self-declared deadline for negotiations with the U.S. arrives. The sanctions target Pyongyang’s coal, iron, textile, and seafood industries, along with certain banks that do business with the DPRK. They also aim to help governments around the world enforce existing UN sanctions, and seek to put pressure on countries that don’t do enough to enforce them. The new sanctions are just one small part of the...

Charlize Theron expressed hurt recently over people showing disregard for her transgender daughter’s pronouns. The Bombshell actor while talking about raising her seven-year-old daughter, Jackson who is a transgender, in an interview with Pride Source, said: “I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive.” Talking about the challenges she faces in raising her daughter, she said further: “I feel like as her mother, for me, it was important to let the world know that I would appreciate it if they would use the right pronouns for her.”

Former national security adviser John Bolton is questioning whether the Trump administration "really means it" when the president and other officials promise to denuclearize North Korea. Speaking with Axios in an interview published Sunday, Bolton accused President Trump of bluffing on the vow to rid the hermit nation of nuclear weapons, saying the White House "would be pursuing a different course" if the pledge were true. "The idea that we are somehow exerting maximum pressure on North Korea is just unfortunately not true," he said, calling the Trump administration's assertion that the country cannot have nukes a "rhetorical policy." If...

Gen. Jack Keane responded Monday to threats of a possible "Christmas gift" missile launch from North Korea, as well as former national security adviser John Bolton's recent remark that President Trump was not exerting "maximum pressure" on North Korea during high-stakes nuclear talks. "He's right in the fact that there is more that can be done," Keane said of Bolton during an appearance Monday night on "The Story" with Martha MacCallum. "Russia and China, even though they voted for the [United Nations] resolutions three times, have never abided by them. ... We've got to sanction China, sanction their banks ......

Former national security adviser John Bolton has suggested Donald Trump is bluffing about stopping North Korea from producing nuclear weapons in his most direct criticism of the president’s foreign policy yet. Mr Bolton, who resigned from the Trump administration in September, accused Mr Trump of having more of a “rhetorical policy” on North Korea rather than a serious plan in an interview with the news website Axios. “The idea that we are somehow exerting maximum pressure on North Korea is unfortunately just not true,” the former adviser said. “We're now nearly three years into the administration with no visible progress...

During a video interview with Rolling Stone magazine released Tuesday, left-wing documentary filmmaker Michael Moore said white men who voted for President Donald Trump were “not good people.” Moore said, “I refuse to participate in post-racial America. I refuse to say because we elected Obama that suddenly that means everything is ok, white people have changed. White people have not changed.” He continued, “Two-thirds of all white guys voted for Trump. That means anytime you see three white guys walking at you, down the street towards you, two of them voted for Trump. You need to move over to the...

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow claimed Tuesday night that the "implosion" of the National Rifle Association (NRA) would be the biggest political news story if it weren't for the impeachment of President Trump. Maddow began by touting the NRA's "legendary" power and major influence over politicians -- and then highlighted the rather turbulent year for the prominent guns rights organization. This included the revelation of Russia agent Maria Butina's attempt to infiltrate the group during the 2016 election and reports of the nonprofit's suspicious spending, which sparked an avalanche of lawsuits and investigations.

Although Washington is one of Germany's closest allies, public trust in the US has significantly eroded under President Donald Trump, a new YouGov survey showed. Germans were asked who was more dangerous: North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Russian President Vladimir Putin or US President Donald Trump. Some 41% of Germans said they thought Trump was the most dangerous out of the five world leaders. In second place was Kim with 17%, followed by Putin and Khamenei with 8%. Coming in last was China's Xi with 7%. Over 2,000 people...

A new intercontinental weapon that can fly 27 times the speed of sound became operational Friday, Russia’s defense minister reported to President Vladimir Putin, bolstering the country’s nuclear strike capability. Putin has described the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle as a technological breakthrough comparable to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite. The new Russian weapon and a similar system being developed by China have troubled the United States, which has pondered defense strategies. The Avangard is launched atop an intercontinental ballistic missile, but unlike a regular missile warhead that follows a predictable path after separation it can make sharp...

George Soros has bought and paid for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), which asked state governors across the nation to settle “refugees” despite President Trump’s executive order that allows states and municipalities the right to approve or deny federal requests to resettle foreign populations in their legal jurisdictions. The ERLC is partnering with an anti-Israel organization in the lobbying operation. The ERLC is a head of the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT), which is owned by the National Immigration Forum, a shell-entity of Soros’ Open Societies Foundation. Although the EIT has demonstrably lied about receiving Soros funds and why,...

Hungary has pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest amid speculation that the annual competition is too queer for the country’s pro-family government. Hungary has not given an official reason for the withdrawal. However, a source at Hungary’s broadcaster, MTVA, reportedly said staff believed the move was about Eurovision’s association with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transvestite (LGBT) decadence and degeneracy. “I was not surprised. It comes from the institutionalised culture of MTVA,” the anonymous source told a British newspaper in a report published Wednesday. The source said no explanation had been provided internally, but that positive coverage of queers issues...