Free Republic

“Ayers was hunted by the FBI for his alleged involvement in the 1970 bombing of the New York City Police Department headquarters, 1971 bombing of the United States Capitol building and the 1972 bombing of the Pentagon.”.. Bill Ayers, famous for being a leading member of the ‘Weather Underground,’ a domestic terror group in the 1960s, showed up at the anti-Israel encampment at the University of Chicago, where he ended up teaching for years. People who remember the 2008 election will recall that Ayers became a political lightning rod because he was an old friend of Barack Obama, who famously...

A State Department official is pushing Thursday for China and Russia to declare that only humans – and not artificial intelligence – will make decisions on deploying nuclear weapons. Paul Dean, an official in the State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability, said during a press briefing that the U.S. has already made "a very clear and strong commitment that in cases of nuclear employment, that decision would only be made by a human being. "We would never defer a decision on nuclear employment to AI. We strongly stand by that statement and we’ve made it publicly with...

Several European member states are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood by the end of May, the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday...

NATO countries have not delivered what they promised to Ukraine in time, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday. This has allowed Russia to press its advantage on the battlefield, while Kyiv’s depleted forces wait for military supplies from the US and Europe, the NATO chief added. "Serious delays in support have meant serious consequences on the battlefield” for Ukraine, Stoltenberg told a news conference in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine was recently compelled to make a tactical retreat from three villages in the east, where the Kremlin's forces have been making incremental gains, Ukraine's army chief said on...

The report by the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll found older voters supported Israel more than younger voters, with 90% of voters over the age of 54 claiming they support Israel over Hamas, compared to 57% of respondents aged 18-24.. Many Americans support Israel over the terrorist organization Hamas in a poll released on Monday, with 80% of respondents saying they support Israel more in the conflict. The poll comes as anti-Israel groups hunker down at dozens of colleges and universities nationwide. The groups have been protesting over the war, with students calling for their schools to cut financial ties with Israel,...

The U.S. ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, doesn’t expect the alliance to offer membership to Ukraine during its 75th anniversary summit in Washington in July. But, she added, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy won’t go away empty-handed. Speaking to the Atlantic Council from NATO headquarters in Brussels, Ms. Smith on Monday said the 32 NATO allies are working on an “actual deliverable” that will demonstrate the alliance’s loyalty their commitment to ensuring Ukraine’s sovereignty. Last year, NATO formally said Ukraine’s future lies with the alliance. “I am expecting allies to construct a bridge to membership by offering Ukraine a ‘deliverable’ that...

The Soviet-Afghan War destroyed Afghanistan and eventually the Soviet Union, which dissolved in 1991 into 15 republics. Numerous satellite states in Europe were liberated at the same time. History may repeat as the Russia-Ukraine war weakens Moscow, financially and geopolitically. Russia’s 2022 invasion was about reoccupying a former colony, Ukraine, but there are other Russian republics that hope to become liberated... … in December 1991, Ukrainians voted for independence and Ukraine became the first of the Soviet republics to leave. The Baltic republics followed, as did Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and others. Now there is unrest across the Russian Federation…...

Far-left Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was arrested during an anti-Israel protest at Washington University in St. Louis on Saturday — a day after she was confronted outside of Columbia University. ... Stein’s Campaign Manager Jason Call and Deputy Campaign Manager Kelly Merrill-Caye were also arrested. ... Stein was “holding the line with students” before police “used force against” her and other protesters. ... The protests were demanding an end to the war in Gaza and ... “It quickly became clear through the words and actions of this group that they did not have good intentions on our campus...

Former International Court of Justice President Joan Donoghue says media inaccurately covered interim verdict in January, which ruled on rights of the plaintiffs, not Israel's actions. Video from X

First, let me apologize to my Jewish readers. I realize that hearing those three words must be painful. Many of you have parents or grandparents whose friends or family were gruesomely murdered in that very manner. The reason I use those words is that today in the year 2024 we are closer to such horror than we’ve been for 80 years, and we must not pretend otherwise. The Jewish nation that promised “never again” is being explicitly threatened with “again.” This moment comes in the wake of the atrocious murdering, raping, beheading, burning alive and hostage-taking committed by Palestinians against...

The House of Representatives Israel aid bill is under scrutiny for including more than $9 billion in humanitarian assistance, which is significantly more than the annual gross domestic product of the Gaza Strip, as critics say the U.S. is essentially funding Hamas through the bill.The Israel bill, which passed in a 366-58 vote Saturday, allocates $26.4 billion in aid to the region, including more than $9.1 billion marked as "Migration and Refugee Assistance" and "International Disaster Assistance," to address the humanitarian needs that arose in the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.The aid is more than...

A total of 25 men mostly of South Asian descent have been sentenced to a collective 346 years in prison over the “abhorrent in the extreme” rape, sexual abuse, and trafficking of girls between 1999 and 2012 in the North Kirklees area of West Yorkshire. Operation Tourway, an investigation starting in 2015 focussing on the towns of Batley and Dewsbury, has jailed 25 men in connection to the “absolutely shocking offending” sexual abuse, rape, and trafficking of eight girls, whom the police said were treated as “defenceless commodities to be abused and traded at whim”. The arrests took place in...

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that Europe could “die” if it fails to build its own robust defense as Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, or if it fails to undertake major trade and economic reforms to compete with China and the U.S. . . . “Our Europe today is mortal,” Macron said. “It can die and that depends solely on our choices,” he added. He called on people to make those choices now because, “it’s today that Europe is between war and peace.”

U.S. troops have begun construction of a pier to be used to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday. “I can confirm that U.S. military vessels, to include the USNS Benavidez, have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said. The news came on the same day Palestinian terrorists fired mortars at United Nations officials as they toured the proposed pier site, as Breitbart News reported.

Overnight, terrorists fired anti-tank missiles toward the area of Har Dov in northern Israel. As a result, an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work was injured and he was later pronounced dead. The victim was identified as Sharif Suad, a resident of Ras al-Ein, an Arab village in the Galilee. Overnight, IAF fighter jets struck Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Chebaa in southern Lebanon, including a weapons storage facility and a launcher used by the terrorist organization. In addition, IDF soldiers fired to remove a threat in the area. Furthermore, IAF fighter jets struck Hezbollah operational infrastructure in the...

Ukraine has sidelined U.S.-provided Abrams M1A1 battle tanks for now in its fight against Russia, in part because Russian drone warfare has made it too difficult for them to operate without detection or coming under attack, two U.S. military officials told The Associated Press. The U.S. agreed to send 31 Abrams to Ukraine in January 2023 after an aggressive monthslong campaign by Kyiv arguing that the tanks, which cost about $10 million apiece, were vital to its ability to breach Russian lines. But the battlefield has changed substantially since then, notably by the ubiquitous use of Russian surveillance drones and...

The U.S. military has begun to build the long-awaited port and causeway off the coast of Gaza that will establish a maritime corridor to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza, the Pentagon said Thursday. "I can confirm that U.S. military vessels, to include the USNS Benavidez, have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea," Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's press secretary, told reporters, referring to the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, system floating pier delivery system. "We are aware of the significant interest in this important effort and will provide much more information...

News reports about Islamic terrorist attacks are awkward. Videos even more so. Australian authorities have refused to use the “I” or “M” word to discuss the Muslim terrorist attack on a bishop.Now they’re demanding that Twitter take down a video of the stabbing on the Australian Jewish Association Twitter account.At issue is the right of X to publish a video showing the moment a 16-year-old allegedly stabbed a bishop in an Orthodox Christian Church in Sydney earlier this month.Australian authorities say the clips threw fuel on a riot that erupted outside the church after the attack and shouldn’t be available...

Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas official, on Wednesday told the Associated Press (AP) in Istanbul that the terror group would agree to a ceasefire of five years or more, and agree to lay down its weapons, if an independent Palestinian state were created along the pre-1967 borders. Al-Hayya has represented Hamas in negotiations for a ceasefire deal and prisoner swap. In the interview with AP, he said that Hamas wants to join the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headed by Palestinian Authorty (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, to form a unified government for Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. According to al-Hayya, Hamas is...

Flipping a gun for a price higher than one paid now may turn anyone into a dealer, making any such sale unlawful if it does not involve all the licensing and paperwork that govern gun dealers.. On Friday, the 31st anniversary of the massacre of Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, the ATF issued new regulations that make it more difficult to comply with federal laws regulating gun dealing and background checks. Since the 1930s, federal law has required gun dealers to be registered as Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL). The requirements hinged on the meaning of “engaged in the business of”...