Free Republic

Just heartbreaking news.Moments ago, President Donald Trump announced that Sarah Beckstrom, one of two members of the National Guard who were shot in a terrorist attack on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., has tragically passed away from her injuries.God Speed Sarah Beckstrom.The 20 year old West Virginia National Guard member succumbed to gunshot injuries from the Afghan shooter per President Trump.There is evil among us; stop dehumanizing people. pic.twitter.com/jCaAQuYVcC— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) November 27, 2025U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro shared a little bit of background on Beckstrom on X:Our hearts and prayers go out to the family of 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom...

The latest brutal act of Afghan refugee terrorism claimed the lives of two brave members of the National Guard in D.C.. Since their arrival in the United States, Afghan ‘refugees’ have been involved in violent attacks, in assorted crimes, and in sexual assaults on women and girls.The attack by Rahmanullah Lakanwal took place a mere week after another Afghan, Abdullah Haji Zada, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the Election Day plot.Abdullah and Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, his Afghan brother-in-law, a former ‘guard’ at an American facility in Afghanistan, had plotted a mass shooting attack directed at “large groups...

The C.I.A. and an Afghan intelligence official said that the shooter had been part of an Afghan “partner force,” known as a Zero Unit, trained and supported by the agency in the southern province of Kandahar. The Afghan refugee accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., fought in the late days of the U.S. war there as part of a “Zero Unit,” a paramilitary force that worked with the C.I.A., according to a person briefed on the investigation and an Afghan intelligence officer familiar with the matter. The units were known for their brutality and labeled “death...

The Campbell’s Co. said Wednesday it has fired an executive who was recorded making racist comments and mocking the company’s products and customers. Martin Bally, a vice president in Campbell’s information security department, was named in a lawsuit filed last week by Robert Garza, a former Campbell’s employee who said he was fired Jan. 30 after he reported Bally’s comments to a supervisor. The lawsuit was filed in Michigan, where both Garza and Bally live. Campbell’s is based in Camden, New Jersey. In the lawsuit, Garza claimed he met with Bally in November 2024 to discuss his salary. During the...

The Afghan national accused of shooting two West Virginia National Guard members just blocks from the White House previously worked with multiple U.S. government entities—including the CIA—while serving with a partner force in Kandahar, Afghanistan, according to CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The suspect has been identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said entered the United States in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden-era resettlement program launched after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Lakanwal had an established relationship with various entities in the U.S. government, including the CIA, due to his role with a partner...

Rep. Al Green (D-TX) said he will file privileged articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump before Congress breaks for Christmas, which would force the House to consider them within two legislative days though they can be tabled. “There will be articles of impeachment filed before the Christmas break. This, I pledge. We have to participate. This is a participatory democracy. The impeachment requires the hands and the guidance of all of us,” Green said. Green said, “I am Al Green, an unbought, unbossed, unafraid, liberated Democrat. I will speak truth to power, which is pretty easy to do. You...

Standing at the podium in the White House, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was, instead of answering questions about the Trump administration, answering questions about her own family. The mother of Leavitt’s nephew was detained by ICE this week. Bruna Caroline Ferreira, “a criminal illegal alien from Brazil,” allegedly overstayed a tourist visa that expired in 1999 according to the Department of Homeland Security. No doubt an embarrassing moment for the usually forthright Leavitt, it also crystallized how the shockwaves of Trump’s immigration are being felt across America. Now, I’m an upstanding citizen, thank you very much. I can’t say I...

During last week’s excruciating Oval Office make-nice between an insultingly buddy-buddy American President and a fraudulently obsequious New York City mayor-elect, the contest was over which pol was the more patronizing. At one point Trump graciously granted his petitioner permission to call him a “fascist” while clearly implying the guy’s OTT campaign rhetoric had been embarrassing. Donald Trump sat regally on his throne, patting Zohran Mamdani’s arm while commending “Attaboy!” as if petting a golden retriever that had fetched a ball. For his part, Mamdani stood mutely by the Resolute desk with cartoonish humility, hands over crotch. This cowed performance...

What if Senator Kelly and the other members of Congress making that video about not following illegal orders did not intend it for our military. What if they intended it as a message to their hysterical followers. What if they intended their followers to assume anyone in uniform following Trump's orders were following illegal orders, because what else can Trump do? At this point how could anyone know if that was their intent or not? Wouldn't some of their crazed followers do exactly what that Afghan in DC is alleged to have done, and attack anyone on military duty? At...

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that National Guard Spc. Sarah Beckstrom — one of the two soldiers ambushed in Washington, D.C. — has died from her injuries, calling the suspected gunman a "monster" and blasting what he described as catastrophic vetting failures during President Joe Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal, according to a New York Times pool report. Trump made the announcement while speaking to military units via video link from the White House, seated alone at a table facing two large screens showing the troops. He said Beckstrom, 20, "was savagely attacked" and did not survive, and that the second soldier,...

Whatever happened to Britain, or the UK, or England, or whatever they’re calling it? We can’t even agree on what it’s called. But what happened to England, the England that, if you’re over 50, you grew up learning about, the England that controlled the world, the England that ran the largest empire in human history at the end of World War One? Britain, which is an island in a pretty inhospitable climate, controlled literally a quarter of the Earth’s surface – and not controlled in the way the United States controls the rest of the world with an implied threat...

West Virginia National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of West Virginia, has died after being shot Wednesday in a Washington, D.C. ambush just blocks from the White House. President Donald Trump confirmed the news Thursday night, noting he was told just seconds before speaking to members of the military at Mar-a-Lago. "I heard that Sarah Beckstrom, of West Virginia, ... highly respected, young, magnificent person, started service in June of 2023, outstanding in every way, she's just passed away," Trump said. "She's no longer with us. She's looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her. It's just...

Once upon a time, cholesterol was simple. This molecule, it was proclaimed, came in two varieties: an artery-clogging “bad” sort and an artery-clearing “good” one. The difference was not in the cholesterol molecules themselves, but rather in the way they are packaged up for transport in the bloodstream as nanoparticles called low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) and high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). The public-health message was clear: minimise the bad LDL-cholesterol by cutting down on fatty foods, red meat and dairy products. Increase the good HDL type by doing more exercise and eating more fruits and vegetables. Since a third of heart attacks and...

What Ebenezer Scrooge was to Christmas before his awakening, liberal educators are to Thanksgiving: At the University of California, Davis, the California History-Social Science Project, which describes itself as “Resources & professional learning for K-12 history-social science,” hosted a Zoom event called “Decolonizing Thanksgiving in the Classroom.” Decolonizing means de-Americanizing this quintessentially American holiday. Other Thanksgiving events are explicitly anti-American: Massachusetts Institute of Technology students are invited to the “4th annual Thanksgiving Myth-busting” event that is aimed at “continuing our exploration of the narratives justifying land grabs via colonialism” and includes a viewing of the TV show “Buffy the Vampire...

Those who worry about how to cope with China’s leadership in technology—and there are plenty of them—think hard about electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels and open-source artificial intelligence. For such people, we have some bad news. This week we report how China is rapidly pressing ahead in two other frontier technologies, autonomous vehicles and new drugs. As these industries spread around the world, they will exemplify the power of Chinese innovation. China’s progress in each of these important areas has been staggering. A robotaxi revolution is gathering pace, which could reshape transport, logistics and everyday urban life. The country’s autonomous...

The blueprint details how as many as 800,000 German, U.S. and other NATO troops would be ferried eastward toward the front line. It maps the ports, rivers, railways and roads they would travel, and how they would be supplied and protected on the way.

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. The American Trinity: The Three Values that Make America Great I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out Your precepts. Psalm...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Fernández Clarifies: “Co-redemptrix” Off Limits in Official Vatican Documents, Permitted in Private DevotionIn comments on “Mater Populi Fidelis,” the DDF Prefect explains what the doctrinal Note means in stating the Marian title is “always inappropriate.”Three weeks after Mater Populi Fidelis sparked debate over its statement that the Marian title Co-redemptrix is “always inappropriate,” the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has clarified that the phrase is not a sweeping rejection of the title itself. The Cardinal said the word “always” applies only to official Church usage from this point forward, not to every...

These are some texts my mother has sent me: ‘They found a mole on my back . . .’ ‘I think Janet may have been contacted by ISIS . . .’ ‘Madeline, the guest room is haunted . . .’ For the reader’s peace of mind: the mole was benign, Janet has not been contacted by the Islamic State and the guest room, well, that remains to be seen. I’ve always accepted my mother’s overuse of ellipses as an idiosyncrasy of an elderly texter. But she doesn’t reserve the ‘. . .’ for ominous messages. When I told her the...

Here are 10 historical fun facts about the beloved holiday ballet that will have sugarplums dancing in your head! 1. Although The Nutcracker first premiered in the United States in 1944 by San Francisco Ballet, it didn’t gain popularity until ten years later with George Balanchine’s version. By the 1960s, the ballet became a holiday essential across the country. 2. Tchaikovsky died shortly after the original 1892 production in Russia, never knowing the long-lasting impression of his work. He also considered it one of his worst works, thinking The Sleeping Beauty was far superior. 3. In German folklore, it is...