Free Republic

The director Terry Gilliam has invited renewed backlash after repeating his claim that he is a “black lesbian in transition”, assailing the #MeToo movement as a “witch-hunt” and asserting that some of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged victims are “adults who made choices”. The website PinkNews offered swift condemnation, calling the 79-year-old’s comments “a feeble attempt to prove that white men are the real victims”. SNIP Gilliam said he was “tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything that is wrong with the world”. On to the #MeToo movement, he said: “I want people to take responsibility and not just...

Austria’s Foreign Ministry says its IT systems are the target of a “serious cyberattack” and authorities have taken counter measures. The ministry said Sunday that “due to the severity of nature of the attack it cannot be ruled out that this is a targeted attack by a state actor.” In a statement, the ministry noted that some other European countries have been hit by “similar attacks” in the past, without elaborating. It said the attack was swiftly discovered and “counter measures were immediately put in place.”

Hillary Clinton has been appointed as the new chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast, the college announced on Thursday. The former US first lady, secretary of state and senator, who has been a regular visitor to Northern Ireland going back to the first visit of President Bill Clinton in 1995, becomes the university’s first female chancellor. Ms Clinton, who failed in her bid to be elected US president, holds an honorary doctorate from Queen’s. She will serve as chancellor for a five-year term.

Supporters of Joe Biden are unlikely to be persuaded by most of the common criticisms. They know he can be rambling and unintelligible. They know his record is unimpressive and that he doesn’t really have “policy proposals”. None of this matters, though, because to them he has the most important quality of all: he can beat Donald Trump. Nothing you can say about the former vice-president’s record, platform or mental state matters next to the argument that he is the best hope Democrats have of getting Trump out of office. There’s just one problem: it’s a myth. It is a...

DOWNING Street was last night livid with Donald Trump for endangering British troops by assassinating Iranian military chief Qasem Soleimani without any warning. In a serious breach of protocol between key allies, the US president didnÂ’t tell Boris Johnson about the Baghdad missile strike on the terror mastermind. The attack sparked immediate overnight concern for the safety of 400 British troops stationed in Iraq and fears they could be targeted for revenge. In a snub to the White House, the British Government refused to give any public support for the killing yesterday. As fears also rose for the precarious deal...

In the wake of the strike ordered by President Trump that killed General Qasem Soleimani, many on the left have rushed to criticize Trump for retaliating against the attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. 2020 Democrats, in particular, piled on Trump with condemnations. "President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox," said Biden. Cory Booker, who apparently is still in the race, claimed, "We have a president who has failed to show any larger strategic plan." Elizabeth Warren acknowledged that Soleimani was an evil terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans, but also said,...

The Muslim population of England has passed the three million mark for the first time, according to estimates prepared by Whitehall. They said that Muslims are the fastest-growing faith group in the country — while allegiance to Christianity continues to decline. The figures were produced by the Office for National Statistics as part of a research project to try for the first time to make regular assessments of the size of different ethnic and religious groups. Until now, religious and ethnic minority populations could be gauged only once a decade using the results of the full-scale ten-yearly national census. According...

Even as The Economist drifts further and further into progressivism and away from the liberalism of its founding, it still claims to be liberalism’s true, authentic voice. The Economist fashions itself a liberal magazine, in the original sense of the word. The weekly was founded in 1843 to argue against the corn laws, which discouraged food imports with tariffs and other restrictions and kept domestic food prices high. It chalked up the repeal of those laws only three years later to “a fearless reliance upon the truth and justice of a great principle”: liberalism.Today we usually call the intellectual descendants...

Britain is one of the least racist countries in Europe, according to a new study which has found prejudice against immigrants to be 'rare' in the UK. High levels of tolerance is typical of wealthy, English-speaking countries and prejudice is more common in poorer nations, according to analysis of the largest international surveys of beliefs and values. British levels of prejudice against immigrant workers and people 'of a different race' were found to be 'relatively low' as was bias against Hindus, Jews, Gipsies, and Muslims. In Bulgaria and Latvia, around 20 per cent would shun neighbours of a different religion....

If these predictions come to pass, their fulfillment will have lasting effects upon America in the 2020s and beyond. In 2008, as the Obama administration prepared to take control in Washington, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey offered a list of bold predictions for the coming five years. Some of them bore out: The economy performed well globally despite the Great Recession, relations with Russia became more hostile without devolving into outright dysfunction, and the United States withdrew from Iraq right at the 36-month mark, which McCaffrey specified. Other predictions, such as a North Korean collapse, improved prospects for success in...

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

The United Kingdom’s experiment with electric police vehicles has seemingly ended in failure after the cars have been revealed to be practically useless for crucial law enforcement activities. As the U.K. Daily Mail reported, hundreds of the vehicles have been purchased across the country by different police forces. The total cost of the green vehicles is almost £1.5 million — nearly $2 million in American currency. While electric cars have their merits, the technology simply isn’t there for the vehicles to serve as regular parts of police fleets. Despite this, U.K. police forces have fielded over 400 of the green...

The European Union and Britain will struggle to seal an agreement on trade and other aspects of their future ties after Brexit next year and should consider extending the negotiations beyond 2020, a top EU official said in an interview published Friday. The U.K. is scheduled to leave the EU on Jan. 31. If it does, it will be the first time a country leaves the world’s biggest trading bloc. Negotiations between the remaining members and the British government on future trade, fisheries, education and transport relations can only begin after that date and must conclude by the end of...

A 60-year-old man stabbed to death in south London last night has become the capital’s 145th murder victim this year. A 50-year-old was arrested at the scene following the stabbing but was taken ill in custody and transferred to hospital where he is stable. The attack happened at 9:30 pm on Monday night in Thornton Heath, south London; and the victim, whose relatives have been informed, was found in the street. Officers are appealing for any witnesses to come forward to help the investigation. […] Youth workers, police and prosecutors say that witnesses are unwilling to give evidence because they...

Faced with growing calls for a united Ireland, Britain’s most loyal subjects look to an uncertain future. For the first time in history, only a minority of members elected to the U.K. Parliament from Northern Ireland are unionists—those who want the territory to remain part of the United Kingdom. The region’s main Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, continues to air demands for a referendum on Irish unification—a so-called border poll. This, combined with the recent electoral changes and the English public’s decisive endorsement of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan for Brexit may have profound implications for the Union of Great...

Several Palestinian clans have rejected The Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a move widely seen as a revolt against the PA. Critics of the treaty claim that it goes against Arab and Islamic norms and teachings. “This treaty is unacceptable to Arabs and Muslims,” remarked Palestinian activist Abu Ghassan Shaheen. “It goes against our religion and traditions.” On Saturday, leaders of large Palestinian clans in Hebron called on the PA to withdraw from the treaty. They also called for banning feminist groups from entering Palestinian schools. The clan leaders expressed opposition to the PA’s...

In response to the U.S. Senate recognizing the Armenian Genocide, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to close two military bases (one American and one NATO) on its soil. This led U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper to openly question Turkey’s commitment to NATO. Two days later, The Telegraph broke a story that Hamas uses Turkey’s territory to plot attacks on Israel, which included plans to assassinate the then-mayor of Jerusalem and the chief of police, as well as a well-known advocate of Jews’ rights to pray on the Temple Mount. These two developments are part of a larger pattern...

This truly has been a week to remember, and not just because of impeachment. – In fact, it could be argued that the idiotic ending to the Democrats’ impeachment sham turns out to only modestly important in the context of the other major events that happened over the last seven days. The impeachment sham notwithstanding, President Trump just had what may well have been the greatest week of his entire presidency, and that is a truly great thing for America. Let’s take a look at this truly momentous week: Markets – This country has seldom seen a run in the...

LONDON — British lawmakers on Friday finally voted to back a plan to withdraw from the European Union. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's bill, backed by a huge parliamentary majority, will take the country out of the 28-member bloc on Jan. 31, and lays the groundwork for sweeping foreign and trade policy shifts. The 358-234 vote marks a significant breakthrough for Johnson, who stormed to electoral victory last week on a pledge to “get Brexit done.” The former mayor of London won the largest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher in 1987, confirming his position as prime minister after he took over...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has done something his predecessor failed to do three times - he got his Brexit bill approved. The members of Parliament have voted 358 to 234 in favor of his Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which sets a Brexit date for January 31. The second reading of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill has passed - which means we are one step closer to getting Brexit done ????— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 20, 2019 Even six Labour MPs voted in favor of the legislation, as noted by the BBC. The House of Commons passed a previous version of the bill...