Free Republic

Iram Sabah, mother of two, is terrified by messages her family has been receiving on their smartphones. Her husband recently was forwarded a video that shows a child's mutilated body. It's unclear where or when the video is from, or whether it has been doctored. A voice implores people to forward it to others, and to stay vigilant — that kidnappers are on the loose. Sabah, 27, doesn't know if the video is fake or real. But she's not taking any chances. "When my children go outside to play, I'm really scared," she says in an interview at her home...

The latest figures include 31% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 46% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15. (see trends). Regular updates are posted Monday through Friday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily email update). Rasmussen Reports invites you to be a part of our first-ever Citizen-Sourced National Midterm Election Polling Project. Learn more about how you can contribute . Now that Gallup has quit the field, Rasmussen Reports is the only nationally recognized public opinion firm that still tracks President Trump's job approval ratings on...

t really is quite simple. Everyone is smart except Donald J. Trump. That’s why they all are billionaires and all got elected President. Only Trump does not know what he is doing. Only Trump does not know how to negotiate with Vladimir Putin. Anderson Cooper knows how to stand up to Putin. The whole crowd at MSNBC does. All the journalists do. They could not stand up to Matt Lauer at NBC. They could not stand up to Charlie Rose at CBS. They could not stand up to Mark Halperin at NBC. Nor up to Leon Wieseltier at the New...

Liberal billionaire George Soros opened up in an interview with The New York Times about his thoughts on former President Obama, noting that he was “actually my greatest disappointment.” Soros’s aide quickly urged him to clarify that his disappointment was on a “professional level,” however, and was not a statement about his presidency.

A West Michigan teen who has undergone more than a dozen reconstructive surgeries since her face was mauled by a pet raccoon as an infant is now recovering at home after her latest procedure. Charlotte Ponce, 14, returned to her Spring Lake area home on Sunday. Doctors at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak last week repaired areas including her cheek, ear, lip and nose, according to her family's update on the "Friends of Charlotte Rose" Facebook page. "She is doing very well ... Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers for my beautiful daughter Charlotte Rose!" In 2002, Charlotte was...

We are enjoined not to speak ill of the dead. But, when an entire nation – or, at any rate, its "mainstream" media culture – declines to speak the truth about the dead, we are certainly entitled to speak ill of such false eulogists. In its coverage of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's passing, America's TV networks are creepily reminiscent of those plays Sam Shepard used to write about some dysfunctional inbred hardscrabble Appalachian household where there's a baby buried in the backyard but everyone agreed years ago never to mention it. In this case, the unmentionable corpse is Mary Jo...

A Turkish court ordered on Wednesday U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, who is being tried on terrorism and spying charges, to remain in detention, rejecting his lawyer's plea for release. The judge said the next hearing in the trial would be on October 12. Brunson, a Christian pastor from North Carolina who has lived in Turkey for more than two decades, was indicted on charges of helping the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which Ankara blames for the failed 2016 coup, as well as supporting the PKK terrorists organization. Speaking to reporters in western Izmir province after the ruling, U.S. Charge d'Affaires...

High-profile businessman Zhou Jiancan was last seen at the five-star Shangyu International Hotel on January 30, where he had been countless times before to host conferences and entertain clients in the small city in eastern China. But on that afternoon, the 55-year-old head of private firm Zhejiang Jindun Holding Group was alone and climbed to a great enough height in the 30-storey building to leap to his death, according to a police report. Zhou was the embodiment of wealth and success in Shangyu and just days before had been in talks with people from Bangladesh about a multibillion-dollar project to...

He was born and raised in England. But Jeremy Reynalds adopted Albuquerque as his home 32 years ago, and our city is a better place because of it. Reynalds, who lost his battle with cancer late Tuesday at the age of 60, was a tireless advocate for the homeless. He dedicated himself to providing food and shelter for them and to nurturing them spiritually. He founded and ran Joy Junction, the state’s largest homeless shelter, until his death. It’s difficult to say how many people Reynalds and Joy Junction have helped over the years, but it’s easily in the tens...

Lead by Patriarch Kyril more than 100,000 marched in a procession from the Church on the Blood in Yekaterinburg to the Monastery of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers about 20km outside the city. There followed a moleben in honor of the Royal Passion Bearers and a hierarchical liturgy (mass) later that night. (Link to the video of the full liturgy is in the comments.)

Racist, homophobic and misogynistic tweets that Milwaukee Brewers reliever Josh Hader sent in 2011 and 2012 surfaced as he pitched in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at Nationals Park, turning his appearance into an embarrassing stain for Hader and a public-relations nightmare for Major League Baseball. After Hader surrendered a three-run homer in the eighth inning, several Twitter users — starting, it seems, with an account named MLB Insider Dinger — found and retweeted messages Hader sent as a 17-year-old. The tweets included numerous uses of the n-word and an allusion to “white power” next to an emoji of a closed...

The shockwaves after Ireland voted to repeal their pro life legal protections for unborn children are still being felt. A new report indicates a pro-life Catholic priest is being disciplined for telling his congregation that if they voted to repeal the pro-life law they should go to confession. The vote in Ireland to repeal the 8th Amendment left pro-life people, and specifically members of the Catholic Church around the world, stunned. Ireland had long been a pro-life nation that valued its women and unborn children but it paved the way for legislation to legalize abortion when it removed its Eighth...

If one local politician gets his way, Chicago could become the largest city in the U.S. to trial a universal basic income program. Chicago lawmaker Ameya Pawar has thus far received support from 36 co-sponsors on a bill to introduce the pilot program. If the bill receives adequate support, it will be voted on by City Council. If the bill passes, it could then be enacted, so long as Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel doesn’t veto the approval. The proposal entails giving $500 a month—no strings attached—to 1,000 families in Chicago. The bill also calls for a change to the Earned...

In May, Facebook began requiring political ads to disclose who paid for them and started collecting all political ads in a searchable archive. Now, researchers are using that information to see how politicians are incorporating the social platform into their campaigns. As the New York Times reports, researchers at New York University have conducted an initial analysis of political Facebook ads and found that President Trump is a leading spender. Of the 267,000 political ads that the research team was able to collect accurate information on from Facebook's archive, Donald Trump's campaign and his PAC were both top 10 ad...

In a new teaser for the return of Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing,” the sitcom’s stars make a not-so-subtle reference to the show’s move from ABC to Fox. “Look at that, look, it’s a fox,” Nancy Travis, who plays Allen’s wife on the show, says as the couple sits around a campfire in a promo that was released on Tuesday. Allen’s Mike Baxter responds, “What is it?” “Yeah a fox,” Travis’ Vanessa Baxter responds. The TV wife repeats the word “fox” until Allen says, “I know somebody’s gonna be happy you said that three times.” 15 sec video: Preview: Check...

Food stamp participation dropped below 40 million for the first time in eight years, according to the latest numbers on food stamp enrollment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The most recent USDA data reveals that 39,604,428 people were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—the program that administers food stamps—as of April 2018. The last time enrollment dipped below 40 million was in February 2010, when 39,588,993 people received SNAP benefits. The latest data on enrollment shows that overall enrollment in the food stamp program has reached historic lows, reaching its lowest point in eight years. But...

America is trying to win a race of technological dominance over China, but the education system isn’t exactly playing along, and increasingly, it’s up to the corporate world to fill in the gaps. U.S. employers face serious skill shortages in several industries including health care and science and technology, with some reports claiming that as many as 500,000 tech jobs go unfilled each year, and the U.S. Labor Department saying for a decade starting in 2015 there will be an estimated 1 million computing jobs without applicants to fill them. The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) estimates that 1.8 million...

A former co-worker of Peter Strzok tells Big League Politics about Strzok’s extensive background in the intelligence community, including the fact that he grew up in Iran. A former co-worker of Peter Strzok tells Big League Politics about Strzok’s extensive background in the intelligence community, including the fact that he grew up in Iran. Many intelligence officers like Strzok are complete ghosts with questionable history and gaps in their life story. But now we have some insight. (RELATED: Strzok Worked For CIA And FBI At Same Time, According To Document). Peter Strzok was born in the late 1960’s – he...

The mayor of Mount Dora, Florida, will have to publicly apologize Wednesday afternoon for his city's overzealous code enforcement that targeted a home painted in the likeness of Vincent van Gogh's masterpiece, "Starry Night." More importantly, the city will remove a lien against the property and drop more than $10,000 in fines it had issued to the husband and wife who own the home, according to a settlement approved unanimously by the city council Tuesday night. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the settlement also includes the payment of $15,000 to homeowners Lubomir Jastrzebski and his wife, Nancy Nemhauser. The couple's...

The Pruning of the Church and Our Response to It Msgr. Charles Pope • July 17, 2018 • As we go through the Book of the Prophet Isaiah at Mass this week, we read of Israel’s painful purifications as well as the subsequent punishment of the surrounding nations.God permitted the nations to persecute Israel in order that she be purified, but the iniquity and sin of the nations and of this world cannot go on forever; wickedness must be ended. The Lord did not just purify Israel, He will also judge the nations.In a complex passage, God says (through...