Free Republic

Reuters) - Hungarian leader Viktor Orban called on Sunday for a global alliance against migration as his right-wing populist Fidesz party began campaigning for an April 8 election in which it is expected to win a third consecutive landslide victory. Popular at home but increasingly at odds politically and economically with mainstream European Union peers, Orban has thrived on external controversy, including repeated clashes with Brussels and lately the United Nations. Those conflicts, mostly centered on migration since people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa flooded into Europe in 2015, have intensified as the elections approach...

..... ....Yes, contrary to what one might expect, the Government of Israel wanted continued U.S. payments to UNRWA, fearing that their termination might cause a new intifada, the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, or renewed warfare with Hamas. Also, Jerusalem sees UNRWA as a lesser evil than alternative recipients of the money, such as the PA. ..... And even if no one replaced U.S. donations, denying UNRWA money does not get to the heart of the problem, which lies not in its sponsored activities but in its perpetuating and expanding population of "Palestine refugees" in three unique, even bizarre ways:...

Iran declared Jerusalem the "capital of Palestine" on Wednesday following a parliamentary vote, according to the country's semi-official Fars news agency. Iran's announcement to recognize the holy city as the “Palestinian capital forever” comes in direct response to President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. “It comes in response to the recent U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in hopes of dealing a blow to Muslims,” said Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, according to Turkey's Anadolu news agency.

It’s Christmas and we’ve just got word about one of the best-ever Christmas gifts a patriot could ever wish for: the US ambassador at the UN Nikki Haley just announced that she negotiated a $285 million cut in United Nations’ “bloated budget”. That’s a big chunk of taxpayers dollars that will not be wasted on that globalist institution next year. Nikki Haley made the announcement on Sunday and she was quoted as saying: “The inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known. We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or...

Israel has announced it is leaving UNESCO citing the U.N. cultural agency’s “systematic attacks” on the Jewish state. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said Friday that the decision was based on the organization’s “attempts to disconnect Jewish history from the land of Israel.” He said the official letter of departure will be submitted before the year’s end and that Israel will leave the organization by the end of 2018. Earlier this year the U.S said it will withdraw from UNESCO, also at that time, citing similar reasons. …

President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to cut off U.S. funding to countries that support a resolution criticizing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” he said, alluding to U.S. aid. The president strongly supported U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley who said Tuesday that the United States “will be taking names” of countries that vote in favor of a General Assembly resolution Thursday declaring that Jerusalem’s status can be changed only by direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. “For all these nations, they take our money and then vote against us. They take hundreds of millions of...

Breaking with years of courting the U.S., Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday for the United Nations to replace Washington as a Mideast mediator and suggested he might not cooperate with the Trump administration’s much-anticipated effort to hammer out an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. At a summit in Turkey, Arab and Muslim leaders “rejected and condemned” President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — the trigger for Abbas’ sharp policy pivot — but stopped short of backing his more combative approach toward Washington. A possible Palestinian refusal to engage with the U.S. and growing backlash against Trump’s shift on...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Egyptian police turned water cannons on Sudanese war refugees and beat them with sticks Friday, brutally clearing out a squatters camp in a city park. At least 10 people were killed, the government said. Hundreds of Sudanese have been living in the park since September to protest the U.N. refugee agency's refusal to consider them for refugee status. They want to be resettled in a third country, such as the United States or Britain, rather than go home after a peace deal ended the 21-year-long civil war in Sudan. In Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations High...

A U.N. human rights expert urged the next U.N. secretary-general on Friday to make the elimination of tax havens a priority to ensure that corporations, billionaires and “kleptocrats” pay their fair share of taxes. Alfred de Zayas, an American law professor, also urged Antonio Guterres, who will succeed Ban Ki-moon as U.N. chief on Jan. 1, to call a world conference on phasing out the offshore havens. […] De Zayas told a news conference after presenting his new report to the U.N. General Assembly that it’s estimated that as much as $32 trillion are held offshore in secrecy jurisdictions escaping...

On Thursday United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent the Security Council a letter nominating as the new head of the UN's mission to Libya a former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad -- who was described in the letter as "Salam Fayyad (Palestine)." America's new ambassador, Nikki Haley, said no. Having thus blocked Fayyad's appointment, Haley then put out a statement explaining why: For too long the UN has been unfairly biased in favor of the Palestinian Authority to the detriment of our allies in Israel. The United States does not currently recognize a Palestinian state or support...

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Trump administration on Tuesday that if the United States disengages from many issues confronting the international community it will be replaced — and that won’t be good for America or for the world. Guterres made clear to reporters at his first press conference here since taking the reins of the United Nations on Jan. 1 that proposed cuts in U.S. funding for the U.N. would be disastrous and create “an unsolvable problem to the management of the U.N.”

The UN Security Council will meet Friday to discuss the declaration of US president Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The meeting was convened at the request of 8 countries: Britain, France, Italy, Sweden, Egypt, Uruguay, Bolivia and Senegal. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will report to the council about Trump's decision and will state his position. Guterres criticized Wednesday "any unilateral measures that would jeopardize the prospect of peace...

Warnings to the United States are being issued by the globalist leech in charge at the UN, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. On Tuesday, the open borders communist operative cautioned President Trump that we could be replaced. We should be so fortunate and ought to, in fact, work to help guarantee that happens. There must be plenty of countries around the world ready to take on the “developing nations” as national dependents, though they may have to “sweeten the deal” with a little slave labor or territory, something that isn’t presently required. Guterres told reporters at his first press conference since taking...

The United Nations complained Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s budget cuts would make it “impossible” for the organization to continue its essential work: “The figures presented would simply make it impossible for the U.N. to continue all of its essential work advancing peace, development, human rights and humanitarian assistance,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement Wednesday, according to Reuters.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas' new leader in the Gaza Strip said Monday his group has repaired relations with Iran after a five-year rift and is using its newfound financial and military aid to gear up for new hostilities with Israel. The announcement by Yehiyeh Sinwar came as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was visiting Israel. At a meeting with the U.N. chief, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained about what he called rising anti-Israel activity by Iran and its allies in the region. Iran was once the top backer of Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel's...

The Pakistani government urged on Sunday people stranded in Swat to flee whenever they get a chance, as security forces battled Taliban militants in one of their strongholds in the valley. More than 1,000 militants had been killed in the offensive in Swat, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters. There was no independent confirmation of the toll. The military has reported a similar toll for the militants and has said 48 soldiers have been killed. The offensive in the one-time tourist valley, 130 km northwest of Islamabad, has also forced at least 1.17 million people from their homes, the...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, says there are unprecedented levels of malnutrition among children fleeing Somalia to escape the severe drought in East Africa. Oxfam, Save the Children and the Red Cross are all launching emergency appeals. Rains have failed for the past three seasons, and aid agencies say more than 12 million people across large parts of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya are facing dire shortages of food, shelter and health services. The BBC's Ben Brown reports from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.

Sister Angélique Namaika is a familiar sight on her bicycle, which she uses to visit the girls she helps in Dungu and nearby villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Photo: UNHCR/B. Sokol 17 September 2013 – A Congolese nun known as ‘mother’ by women and girls displaced and abused by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is being honoured with a top prize from the United Nations refugee agency, it was announced today. Sister Angélique Namaika will receive the Nansen Refugee Prize for extraordinary humanitarian work on behalf of refugees, internally displaced or stateless people, as well...

GENEVA: Seventeen people died and 140 would-be migrants were missing at sea Thursday after Yemeni police opened fire on a group of boats attempting to smuggle 515 people from Somalia to Yemen, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)said. Two of four boats carrying mainly Somalis and Ethiopians capsized in the Gulf of Aden late on Wednesday after Yemeni authorities spotted the vessels approaching the coastline. Survivors said Yemeni forces opened fired as two boats offloaded passengers. Yemeni officials said the smugglers returned fire. The third and fourth boats, anchored further offshore under the cover of darkness, tried to...

The Israeli Labor and Meretz parties voted for a resolution of the council of the Socialist International, currently held in Casablanca, backing Jerusalem as capital for the Palestinian and Israeli States, and calling for a "fair settlement" to the refugees issue. "The major elements of a final settlement are clear: the implementation of Security Council resolution 242, the establishment of a Palestinian state besides Israel, the two states will have Jerusalem as their capital, besides a fair settlement to the refugees problem," says the resolution unanimously passed by the SI on Friday. Under the resolution, the two Israeli parties and...