Free Republic

The U.S. government is curtailing admissions of refugees to focus on the massive effort to process and resettle tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees, the State Department said Monday. Through January 11, the U.S. will stop booking travel for refugees who don't qualify for certain exceptions. Refugees who need to reunite with family in the U.S., who are travel-ready, who have "urgent cases" or whose medical and security screenings are set to expire soon will continue to be resettled, the State Department said. The limits on refugee admissions were requested by the local nonprofit refugee resettlement agencies that partner with...

The number of migrants taken into U.S. custody along the border with Mexico decreased for a third consecutive month in October after skyrocketing this summer, according to government data published on Monday... Roughly 57% of the migrants encountered by U.S. border agents in October were expelled to Mexico or their homelands under a Trump-era emergency policy known as Title 42 that the Biden administration has retained.... ...Nearly 30% of the migrants encountered in October had been previously processed by U.S. authorities in the past 12 months, CBP said. Approximately 70,000 of the migrants who entered U.S. border custody in October...

After a week shivering in sodden woodland, the largest group of migrants stuck between the serried ranks of Belarusian and Polish border guards decided to move. We were en route to their camp but they had other plans. "It's too cold and we are in a place that's quite open, we have no protection from the rain and snow. And all the children are coughing because of smoke," a contact, Dino, told me by voice message as I tried to arrange our meeting. ... The EU was actually deliberating tougher sanctions on the Belarusian regime. An attempt to hold those...

The prosecution's star witness in the Kyle Rittenhouse case had a criminal charge dismissed just six days before the trial's start, meaning the jury had no insight into his extensive criminal record nor his history of lying to police, DailyMail.com can reveal. Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger was well aware of this when he paraded Gaige Grosskreutz, 28, the third man shot on the night of August 25, 2020, as a paragon of selfless virtue. He was a paramedic, the court heard, just there that evening to provide medical aid, as he claimed to have done at countless other protests...

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- The New York City Public Design Commission voted unanimously Monday to approve the long term loan of the controversial Thomas Jefferson statue in the Council Chambers at City Hall to the New-York Historical Society... ...Some commission members were concerned with putting it at the New-York Historical Society because it is privately run and charges a $22 admission fee for adults. They wanted it to be at a location that is free for entry, like another part of City Hall.... ...Once moved, the statue will be displayed in the museum's first-floor lobby for approximately six months...

A discussion between pupils over the types of pronouns that could be used to describe people in the Spanish language on a bus ride home got out of hand and ultimately led to a student being suspended, with the school now being sued by the teen. The New Hampshire student-athlete together with his mother is suing his school district after he was suspended from a football game for expressing his views that there are 'only two genders.' The student is seeking nominal damages against New Hampshire School Administrative Unit 16 (SAU16) and Exeter High School Assistant Principal Marcy Dovholuk. The...

U.S. officials say Russia destroyed a retired satellite in an anti-satellite weapon test, creating a cloud of debris that prompted the seven-member crew of the International Space Station to take shelter in their Crew Dragon and Soyuz spacecraft early Monday as a precaution. "I'm outraged by this unconscionable action," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.... State Department spokesman Ned Price said the Russian Federation "recklessly conducted a destructive satellite test of a direct ascent anti-satellite missile against one of its own satellites." "The test has so far generated over 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris and hundreds of...

Prosecutor Thomas Binger told Kyle Rittenhouse: "You understand that when you point your AR-15 at someone, it may make them feel like you are going to kill them, correct?" Problem is, it wasn't an AR-15, and secondly, here is the sequence of events that night: Rittenhouse is headed to put out a fire. Rosenbaum sees him and begins to chase him. Rittenhouse flees. Rosenbaum keeps pursuing. Rittenhouse points his gun at him but doesn't shoot. Rosenbaum keeps after him. Rittenhouse turns to face Rosenbaum, Rosenbaum lunges for his gun, gets shot. Rittenhouse didn't provoke him as Rosenbaum began to chase...

“The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established” (Proverbs 16:1-3).

Representative Karen Bass (D-CA) said on CNN that the two white men killed by Kyle Rittenhouse were like white Civil Rights activists killed in the 1960s. Asked about the trial on the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, Bass said, “I think that particular trial is off to a bad start just like the trial of Rittenhouse is off to a bad start. The Arbery trial, is a trial of a lynching. That is exactly what happened in that case and look at Rittenhouse. Both of those trials were based in race.” Jake Tapper said, “Kyle Rittenhouse is a white man accused...

A 17-year-old female from Washington died from cardiac arrest 36 days after having received her second Pfizer vaccination. She becomes the third person found in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to possibly have died from a COVID-19 vaccine. According to information in the report, she had recovered from a symptomatic but not severe case of COVID-19 in August. The report indicates she got her first vaccination on Sept. 3 and her second vaccination shot on Sept. 15. She showed up in the emergency department of the hospital Oct. 23 with chest pain and difficulty breathing for the previous...

The continued dominance of the U.S. defense industrial base isn’t guaranteed without improvements to funding and an easing of bureaucracy, according to the chief executive of one of America’s foremost defense corporations.“When you look at the breadth of challenges that the U.S. and our allies need to deal with, I can’t remember a time when it’s been as broad as it is today,” said Kathy Warden, CEO of Northrop Grumman.“I look 10 years into the future, and the pace at which other nations are building up their arsenals, including nuclear weapons, it worries me that we are on the verge...

The southeastern Chinese city of Shenzhen—known as a national leader in economic development—has seen its industrial profits plunge during the year.Monthly data from the Shenzhen Bureau of Statistics reveal the city’s industrial enterprises profits fell by 50.4 percent in July compared to June, a 40 percent drop from last July. August saw a fall of 29.46 percent year-on-year while September data has not yet been released.Yi Xianrong, a former director of the Financial Development Office of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told The Epoch Times that such a downward trend for this city of 12.6 million people in Guangdong...

On this date in 1885, Louis Riel, “the puzzling Messianic figure of Canadian history,” was hanged in Regina for treason. We have already met in these pages the magnetic, controversial figure of Louis Riel when his Red River Rebellion caused the 1870 execution of Thomas Scott, one of the soldiers sent to suppress it. Now, after a decade and a half in the political and sometimes literal wilderness, the champion of the Métis had been recalled from the United States to press the rights of his mixed-race French-indigenous people against the Anglo Canadians’ westward march. It was North America’s familiar...

The Department of Defense (DOD) has indicated that it will respond to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt after his state’s National Guard suggested that it would reject a Pentagon COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all service members.“We are aware of the memo issued by the Oklahoma Adjutant General regarding COVID vaccination for Guardsmen and the governor’s letter requesting exemption. We will respond to the governor appropriately,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement to media outlets on Nov. 13.Without elaborating on how the DOD would respond, Kirby said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin “believes that a vaccinated force is a more...

In the East Bay, several children have reportedly been given wrong dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

James Kraus, one of the prosecutors in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, told the jury in a Kenosha, Wisconsin court Monday that the defendant should have let himself be attacked last August because “everybody takes a beating sometimes.” Kraus was delivering the rebuttal argument, after fellow prosecutor Thomas Binger gave the first closing argument, and defense attorney Mike Richards responded on behalf of Rittenhouse. The prosecution tried throughout the day to argue that Rittenhouse did not have the “privilege” of self-defense, even though he only shot people who had pursued and attacked him, because he had provoked the attack...

The Wyoming Republican Party will no longer recognize Liz Cheney as a member of the GOP in its second formal rebuke for her criticism of former President Donald Trump. The 31-29 weekend vote by the state party central committee followed votes by local GOP officials in about one-third of Wyoming's 23 counties to no longer recognize Cheney as a Republican. In February, the Wyoming GOP central committee voted overwhelmingly to censure Cheney, Wyoming's lone U.S. representative, for voting to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Cheney didn’t immediately return an email message...

An elementary school in Connecticut is requiring its students to engage in its "Social Justice Lesson Standards," which includes transgender content being exposed to children as early as kindergarten. Parents of students attending West Hartford Public Schools contacted nonprofit parent group Parents Defending Education about the material, and expressed concern over it being used by the district to push group identities through books about transgenderism being included in the curriculum. District officials informed parents that they will not be allowed to opt out of the curriculum. One parent was particularly disturbed by a book taught to fourth graders entitled, "When...

Original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley has shared an unfounded conspiracy theory that the deaths at a Travis Scott concert earlier in the month were part of a satanic ritual. The rapper November 5 set at his Astroworld event left nine people dead and several more fighting for their lives. Since then, dozens of lawsuits have been filed and a slew of questions remain unanswered about what went wrong. On Friday (November 12), Ace took to his Facebook to share a photo of what appears to be his right foot covered in a sock emblazoned with the words "Not Today Satan",...