Free Republic

<p>As President Trump attempts to bolster Eastern European nations against Russian belligerence while meeting in Europe this week, he is getting added support from his top diplomat. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will accompany Trump on Friday and Saturday in Hamburg for a summit of the "Group of 20" developed countries, but then he will depart for Ukraine, for a show of solidarity in the nation where Russia has most overtly attempted to exert its influence. His message there, a senior State Department official said Wednesday, would be to support Ukraine's "sovereignty and territorial integrity." Russia invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014 and annexed the Crimean peninsula, provoking a string of international sanctions that are still in place. Tillerson has not always embraced the idea of sanctions and has suggested alternatives to the so-called Minsk agreements, which call for Russia to end its occupation of Crimea. The State Department official sought to dispel suspicion that the U.S. and Russia might cut their own deal over Ukraine. "There certainly is no intent or desire to work exclusively with Russia," the official said in a briefing with reporters. "I mean, this is a multiparty issue." He said that the nations charged with handling the Ukraine crisis under the so-called Normandy format — Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine — want a U.S. interlocutor to participate. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with State Department practice, said the Trump administration had not yet decided whether to grant Ukraine's request to purchase lethal weapons. Selling arms to Ukraine to fight Russia had long had Republicans' backing...</p>

In an interview on “This Week,” Vice President Mike Pence responded to new Russian aggression in Ukraine, saying, “We’re watching and very troubled by the increased hostilities.” Asked by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos if President Donald Trump talked about that concern with Russian President Vladimir Putin in their phone call last weekend, Pence would not say. But he revealed that the two leaders did discuss the crisis in Ukraine, which the White House had not mentioned in its official readout of the call. “Those conversations are going to be ongoing,” the vice president said on “This Week” Sunday....

The new US ambassador to the United Nations used her inaugural statement to the international body to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine. “I consider it unfortunate that the occasion of my first appearance is one in which I must condemn the aggressive actions of Russia,” Haley said. “It is unfortunate because it is a replay of too many instances over many years in which United States representatives have had to do that.” She singled out Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. The remarks may help silence critics of President Trump who have feared he’s too in sync with Russian President Vladimir Putin....

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich jabbed Russia for its vote Friday in the United Nations Security Council — a move that could reflect badly on President-elect Trump. "So Russia having illegally occupied Crimea and eastern Ukraine votes to condemn Israel for 'occupied lands.' We are supposed to be impressed," the Trump adviser tweeted Saturday morning. In a 14-0 vote on Friday, the U.N. Security Council condemned Israel for settlements in areas of the West Bank and East Jerusalem that Israel occupied during the Six-Day War of 1967. The Security Council is often critiqued for being anti-Israel.

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released hidden camera video on Thursday, which shows Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold, a Democratic challenger for U.S. Senate, telling a Palo Alto, California, fundraiser that Hillary Clinton might use an executive order to enforce gun control. In a video shot during the fundraiser, O’Keefe asks Feingold, “If there’s still Republican control in Congress, and if Hillary is elected, is there anything she can do could do to, uh…”. Feingold jumps in and says, “Well, there might be executive order.” O’Keefe responds by acting like he was learning this for the first time. In a surprised voice, he...

Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine took a historic step toward NATO on Tuesday in a parliamentary vote that stoked Russia's anger ahead of talks on ending the ex-Soviet state's separatist war. Lawmakers in the government-controlled chamber overwhelmingly adopted a bill dropping Ukraine's non-aligned status -- a classification given to states such as Switzerland that refuse to join military alliances and thus play no part in wars. President Petro Poroshenko had vowed to put Ukraine under Western military protection after winning an election called in the wake of the February ouster in Kiev of a Moscow-backed president. "Ukraine's fight for its independence,...

Late Thursday, Ukraine's parliament voted to approve a resolution that calls for the country's security services to pull back and end their crackdown on ongoing protests. The resolution states an end to the "anti-terrorist" operation against protesters and orders a release of all imprisoned protesters, as well as similar measures. The degree to which Ukraine's security services do or do not obey this resolution is not actually the most important thing here. What makes this a really big deal is that the parliament is actually as well as symbolically undermining President Viktor Yanukovych – challenging both his handling of the...

A father in Towson, Maryland, was forcefully ejected from a local town hall forum for asking the wrong question. Robert Small had concerns over the Common Core education initiative, feeling that it was dumbing down the curriculum in his local school district. "My question is, how does lowering America's educational standards prepare kids for community college?" asked Small, before soon being approached by a security guard — who was also an off-duty cop — and being dragged away from his seat. The outspoken father then implored the crowd to take action. "Don't stand for this," said Small. "You're sitting here...

New Jersey: Court Upholds Man Arrested For Visible Gun Case In Car New Jersey appellate court upholds five-year sentence for ex-cop who was driving with his legally owned guns. Readington TownshipMotorists driving through New Jersey can be subjected to a warrantless search if their luggage is similar in appearance to a gun case, an appellate court ruled last week. The Superior Court's Appellate Division upheld a five year prison sentence against Dustin S. Reininger, a former police officer who was in the process of moving from Maine to Texas when a Readington Township police officer recognized the cases in the...

In a scenario which will surely strike some as deja vu, the liberal jesuit Fr. Tom Reese previewed the contents of the document last week, in much the same way that the liberal jesuit Fr. Charles Curran “previewed” Humanae Vitae for the mainstream media before the document was actually released (the pope overruled Fr. Curran’s claims that the Church would endorse contraception — but the media had already made up its mind and few bothered to actually read what the pope had to say). Here’s Fr. Reese on MSNBC “explaining” the news: Notice that Fr. Reese does NOT correct the...

Anti-abortion activists would have to respect the personal space of people entering medical facilities in Chicago or risk a $500 fine under an ordinance a City Council committee approved today. The measure drew criticism from abortion rights opponents and praise from agencies that provide medical services including abortions. Ald. Thomas Tunney, 44th, said the proposed ordinance, modeled after a Colorado state law upheld in 2000 by the U.S. Supreme Court, is not about the hot-button abortion debate. It’s designed to protect all workers and patients entering any medical facility who could be harassed, intimidated or assaulted, he said. “What we’re...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A recent study by the Multinational Council on Climate Research, a Washington-based think tank, found that global warming, the phenomenon that is causing average temperatures on Earth to rise, is actually nothing more than a collective figment of overactive left-wing imaginations across the country. “We were astonished by the results,” said Jacob Harcourt, managing director of the MCCR. “I had always thought the primary cause of global warming to be gases in our atmosphere that trapped the sun’s heat and caused an increase in surface temperatures. Turns out it’s nothing more than a penchant for foreign films...

BATI KOT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - At least one U.S. soldier opened fire to scatter a crowd of civilians and police on Thursday after failed suicide bomb attacks on a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military and witnesses said. A car bomb targeting a U.S. convoy in the village of Bati Kot, 15 km (9 miles) east of Jalalabad, killed the driver, two passengers and a nearby civilian, but none of the soldiers was hurt, the U.S. military said in a statement. Afghan police securing the site in eastern Afghanistan were then attacked by an insurgent dressed in police uniform. He...

New tools this year include increased fines, loss of license and photo enforcement CHICAGO—The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) joined with the State Police and Illinois Tollway to remind motorists construction season is about to kick in to gear and warn that tough new laws are on the books that target drivers who flout work zone speed limits and endanger the lives of construction workers and other drivers. “Next week is Work Zone Safety Week and the traditional beginning to highway construction season. We want to send a message to motorists now to slow down in work zones,” IDOT Secretary...

The Iranian embassy in Baghdad said on Tuesday that its second secretary, Jalal Sharafi, who had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital in February had been released. The announcement confirmed a report on state television in Tehran, which said Sharafi would return to Iran later Tuesday. "Yes, he was released yesterday," an official at the embassy told AFP but provided no further details. Sharafi, 40, was abducted in Karrada, a predominantly Shiite southeastern district of Baghdad, on February 4 by gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms outside a branch of the Iranian state-owned Bank Melli. His abduction came amid increasing...

PORTLAND, Ore. ? The body of a 78-year-old woman who disappeared on a storm-battered beach was found Wednesday, the third confirmed death from storms in the Pacific Northwest that smashed rainfall records and damaged hundreds of homes, authorities said. The Pineapple Express storm, named for its origin over the warm Pacific Ocean, abated Wednesday after sending rivers over their banks Monday and Tuesday, causing millions of dollars in damage.

Chernobyl Legacy, by Paul Fusco.

Researchers on committee headed by senator identified as using GOP pol's Social Security number to get his personal report. WASHINGTON -- Two opposition researchers working for Sen. Charles Schumer at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee obtained copies of a confidential credit report on Maryland's Republican lieutenant governor, prompting calls for their prosecution. In July, committee research director Katie Barge and Lauren Weiner, a junior staffer, used Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele's Social Security number to get his credit report, according to a Democratic official familiar with the case. The committee, which works to elect Democrats to the Senate, has been...

The trial of Saddam Hussein will be shown on live television, Iraq's national security adviser said yesterday. The trial will show the Arab and Muslim world "that this is going to be a fair, just trial with a defence counsel in there, with a proper prosecuting counsel as well there," Iraqi national security adviser Muwaffaq Rubaie told CNN. "And everybody will watch this trial live on television." Earlier this month, an Iraqi tribunal filed the first charges against the deposed Iraqi leader over the 1982 killing of 143 residents of the village of Dujail, north-east of Baghdad, where he had...

MOSCOW, July 28 (RIA Novosti) - After German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder's possible ousting this fall, the Russian-German-French troika that tried to integrate Russia with Europe may cease to exist. President Vladimir Putin will be left without any strategic partners in the EU, Alexander Rahr, director of Russian and CIS programs with the Berlin-based German Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily Thursday. It is becoming clear why Putin has been pursuing a strategic alliance with China and doing his best to bolster the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Rahr said. The EU is destined to change. Given Europe's...