Free Republic

Newly-released videos show the moments a man attacked a woman at random outside the King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle earlier this month. Fale Vaigalepa Pea, 42, was armed with a wooden board that had a screw through the end of it and used both hands to swing the weapon and strike the victim, 75-year-old Jeanette Marken, in the face, according to charges filed in King County Superior Court. The hit gouged out Marken's eye, and she just learned that she will not recover her eyesight in the affected eye, family members told KOMO News on Friday. "To take a...

Fans of Charlie Kirk have been posing for selfies at what appears to be a recreation of the Utah Valley University site where the conservative activist was murdered. The tent and photo setup is at AmFest, the annual youth conference for the organization Kirk founded, Turning Point USA. More than 30,000 attendees gathered for the hectic opening night of the four-day event. Liberal network MS Now was reporting from the event in Phoenix when they noticed some young people paying an unconventional tribute to Kirk, who was murdered by an assassin's bullet while debating on September 10. 'You can see...

More than 800 migrants in 13 boats crossed the English Channel on Saturday, according to Home Office data. The figure is a record for a December day in recent years, and is believed to be due to a backlog of people wanting to get across to Kent because of recent bad weather. It takes the total for the year to 41,455 people, surpassing 2024, when there were 36,816 for the entire year. A Home Office spokesperson said: "The number of small boat crossings are shameful and the British people deserve better." The 803 migrants were brought ashore at Dover by...

Metro Long Island Politics World News Search Type to Search Search US News San Francisco power outage left 130,000 in the dark as self-driving cars stalled in middle of streets By Nicholas McEntyre Published Dec. 20, 2025, 11:30 p.m. ET Today's Video Headlines 00:22 / 00:49 San Francisco plunged into darkness when nearly 30 percent of the city was struck by a power outage, which brought vital transportation, such as self-driving cars, to a grinding halt on Saturday night. Over 130,000 houses and businesses were left in the dark, largely in the northwest part of San Francisco, including the Richmond,...

Four men have been convicted for the horrific exploitation, sexual assault and rape of a vulnerable 16-year-old girl who they picked up in Birmingham. The victim, a runaway, was lured into Arqash Zaffar's BMW on Alum Rock Road in July 2019. She reported that Zaffar raped her multiple times over the following days, including in a hotel room where several men took turns to abuse her. Mohammed Nadim, who was present in Zaffar's car when the girl was picked up, sexually assaulted her in the vehicle. Shahban Arif arranged for the victim to be accommodated in a Walsall hotel, while...

Summers in the city could get a little cooler for apartment dwellers with the recent passing of a New York City Council bill. Intro 994, also known as the Cool Homes For All legislation, passed the City Council on Thursday, paving the way for tenants to get free cooling systems from landlords at their request. “All tenants deserve a safe, livable home, and as our summers get hotter, that means guaranteeing access to air conditioning,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler, who sponsored the bill. The legislation will require building landlords to provide cooling systems capable of maintaining 78 degrees in...

An emotional meeting took place at a Sydney hospital between Rabbi Mendel Kastel, the brother-in-law of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was murdered in a terrorist attack in the city, and Ahmed al-Ahmad, the Syrian Muslim citizen who courageously intervened and neutralized one of the terrorists during the attack. Al-Ahmad’s attorney, Sam Issa, also attended the meeting, which was reported by Kan News. Speaking to Ahmed at his hospital bedside, Rabbi Kastel expressed his gratitude. “Thank you-not only for saving lives, but for your courage,” he said. “The fact that you come from a non-Jewish background, from a Muslim background, makes...

The Talk Shows Dec 21st, 2025 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:FACE THE NATION (CBS): Margaret Brennan anchors: Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.); National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett; UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell; Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; CBS News' executive director of elections and surveys Anthony Salvanto. FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Anchor Shannon Bream: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.); Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.); National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett. Sunday special: Dead Sea Scrolls at Museum of the Bible. Panel: Marc Thiessen,...

World War II Navy veteran Ira “Ike” Schab, one of the dwindling number of survivors of the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 105. Daughter Kimberlee Heinrichs told The Associated Press that Schab died at home early Saturday in the presence of her and her husband. With his passing, there remain only about a dozen survivors of the surprise attack, which killed just over 2,400 troops and propelled the United States into the war. Schab was a sailor of just 21 at the time of the attack, and for decades he rarely spoke about the experience....

A massive outage has knocked out power to 130,000 homes and businesses across San Francisco, leaving at least one-third of the city in darkness. The power failure left a large swath of the northern part of the city in the dark on Saturday, beginning with the Richmond and Presidio neighborhoods and areas around Golden Gate Park. Social media posts and local media reported mass closures of restaurants and shops and darkened street lights and Christmas decorations. The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said on X there were 'significant transit disruptions' happening citywide and urged residents to avoid nonessential travel...

The world's largest producer of mozzarella is closing one of its dairy plants in California due to the state's sky high operating costs. Leprino Foods, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, supplies cheese for fast-food pizza restaurants, including Domino's, Pizza Hut and Papa John's. For the last 115 years, the plant has operated in Lemoore, a small town deep within California's rural Central Valley. But now more than a century of history is coming to a close, with an estimated 300 people set to lose their jobs when the plan shutters early next year. To give people time to find new employment,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has met with his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki for the first time since Nawrocki took office in August. While Nawrocki has taken a less friendly approach towards Kyiv than his predecessor, Andrzej Duda, today he declared that his meeting with Zelensky was “a sign that we are together” and was “bad news for Moscow”, their common enemy. The Polish president said that he was “optimistic” about “building good neighbourly relations”, while Zelensky likewise said that he “feels very positive” following the talks, which he believes can “open a new stage in relations”. After arriving in Warsaw...

People living in “an Islamic country” must “at least have to profess [they’re a] devout Muslim.” Those living in “the United States or a Western Europe,” however, can believe and do whatever they want. Hanson breaks down the difference between “a Judeo-Christian country” and “an Islamic country” where it’s “almost impossible” to be “an apostate, an atheist, [or an] agnostic” in those countries, on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been heckled and booed on his return to Bondi Beach for a vigil, the first time he has visited since a brief visit on Monday morning. A National Day of Reflection is being held today to honor the victims of the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, on a night that should have been the final night of Hanukkah.

Diversity is not our strength California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, posted to X his support for the “migrant community” in California over the state’s legal immigrants and citizens. “Migrant” is the new word for “illegal” alien. “Migrant communities are vital to California’s vibrant culture and world leading economy. In CA, we’ll continue to protect our migrant communities this #InternationalMigrantsDay and every day.” Because as Democrats love to say, “Diversity is our strength.” Yet nothing is further from the truth. British historian Arnold Toynbee warned, “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.” “According to Toynbee, civilizations start to decay...

A survey from the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) has found that at least one in three Muslims living in France believe that the Sharia law should be instituted globally. In a follow up to its annual survey of Muslim opinion in France, IFOP released another poll of 1,005 Muslims over the age of 15 to specifically examine “the influence of political Islamism” in the country, notably through the Muslim Brotherhood, which the French government has accused of engaging in a decades-long campaign to undermine Western civilization. According to the survey, 32 percent of Muslims in France consider Islam...

The Australian state of New South Wales is proposing to ban public displays of Islamic State group flags or extremist symbols after a mass shooting driven by antisemitism killed 15 people at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Under draft laws to be debated by the state Parliament, publicly displaying the IS flag or symbols from other extremist groups will be offenses punishable by up to two years in prison and fines. The state’s premier, Chris Minns, also said chants of “globalize the intifada” will be banned and police would be given greater powers to demand protesters remove face coverings at demonstrations. “Hate...

Federal prosecutors say the Biden‑era border crisis produced one of the most brazen cybercrime cases in years. The Department of Justice charged 54 alleged members of the Venezuelan terror gang Tren de Aragua with using sophisticated malware to loot millions from U.S. ATMs and funnel the cash back to their criminal network. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska unsealed two sweeping indictments charging 54 individuals for their alleged roles in a nationwide ATM “jackpotting” conspiracy tied to the violent Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TdA). Prosecutors say the group deployed sophisticated malware to force ATMs across...

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have presented a $112 billion reconstruction plan to Gulf officials to build a “high-tech metropolis” atop the remains of Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The 32-page PowerPoint presentation labeled "sensitive" and titled "Project Sunrise" was developed over 45 days and reportedly presented to officials from Qatar, UAE, Egypt, and Turkiye. The plan envisions turning the Gaza Strip into a "high-tech metropolis" over the next two decades with four phases of reconstruction beginning in southern Gaza. It also calls for turning Rafah into Gaza's new "administrative center," housing over 500,000...

Donald Trump just sent Nicolas Maduro a Christmas message, of a sort. And that message is not many happy returns of the day. Earlier today, the US Navy boarded a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil in international waters. Unlike the first seizure, Marc Caputo reports for Axios, this ship had no specific sanctions applied to it [see update below]. This escalates the standoff over Maduro's illegal regime and the oil revenue he desperately needs to cling to power:The U.S. military early Saturday boarded a tanker that is not under U.S. sanctions as it shipped Venezuelan oil in hopes of escaping a...