Free Republic

The school board fired Scott Ziegler from his role after the report came to light The superintendent is accused of covering up the allegations against the boy Father of one of the victims slammed the grand jury for not having 'more teeth' He hopes more repercussions are set to come for the Loudoun County district A 15-year-old boy was sentenced in November for assaulting two teenage girls He attacked them in May and October last year, raping one in a bathroom stall The teenager assaulted the second girl after switching schools

China's imports and exports plunged in November to levels not seen since early 2020, official figures showed Wednesday (Dec 7), as severe COVID-19 restrictions hit the economy hard. The last major economy still wedded to a zero-tolerance virus policy, Beijing's snap lockdowns, travel curbs and mass testing have stifled business activity, disrupted supply chains and dampened consumption. Imports in November fell 10.6 per cent year-on-year, the biggest drop since May 2020, according to the General Administration of Customs.

Indonesia's parliament has approved a new criminal code that bans anyone in the country from having extramarital sex and restricts political freedoms.Sex outside marriage will carry a jail term of up to a year under the new laws, which take effect in three years. The raft of changes come after a rise in religious conservatism in the Muslim-majority country. Critics see the laws as a "disaster" for human rights, and a potential blow to tourism and investment.

Influencers on Chinese social media platforms have been promoting such products to correct physical imperfections like crooked teeth and a flat head in children.From taping children’s lips to stop mouth breathing at night to helmets that mould a baby’s skull to a desired shape. Social media has helped to spread tips and ideas on how to correct physical imperfections in children. But experts warn these tips are potentially dangerous. A report published by Shanghai-based magazine Sixth Tone in September highlighted a growing number of parents who believe that they can enhance their children’s appearance by taping their mouths before...

Peru has a female president for the first time, after ex-president Pedro Castillo was impeached - hours after he tried to dissolve parliament.Dina Boluarte - previously the vice-president - was sworn in after a dramatic day in Lima. Earlier in the day, Mr Castillo had said he was replacing Congress with an "exceptional emergency government". But lawmakers ignored the announcement, and in an emergency meeting impeached the president.

Investigations are continuing into the election anomalies in Arizona, where Republicans performed fairly well except for in the top four Trump-endorsed races. Since there are 4 percent more Republicans than Democrats in the state (as well as in Maricopa County), and most of the Republicans were easily beating their Democratic opponents in mainstream polls, data analysts are looking closely at the numbers. Analytics 805 examined the numbers of who voted in most of the races, and discovered that Republican candidates outside of the four races performed incredibly well in contrast, as much as 200 percent better. Analytics 805 founder Thomas...

TOPLINE Less than a quarter of Americans from both parties approve of former President Donald Trump’s dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, according to a new YouGov/Yahoo survey that also found less than half of Republicans think Trump is stronger now than he was in 2020, as the former president faces a string of controversies since announcing his 2024 candidacy

"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." "And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves...

Vanguard will no longer participate in the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative as lawmakers and the broader marketplace scrutinize the company’s support of the environmental, social, and governance movement, also known as ESG. Signatories of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative promise to move portfolio companies closer to eliminating net carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner. Vanguard will withdraw from the initiative to “provide the clarity our investors desire about the role of index funds and about how we think about material risks, including climate-related risks,” according to a statement. The move occurred hours after officials in the state of...

The far-right gunman who killed South African anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani has been released on parole a week after he was stabbed in prison. Janusz Walus, 69, has been discharged under strict conditions for two years, the authorities say. He shot Hani in 1993 in a failed attempt to derail South Africa's transition from a white-minority government to democratic rule. SNIP Hani was regarded as the most popular politician after Nelson Mandela, who went on to become the country's first black president in 1994.

The controversy over investment titan BlackRock's focus on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues is heating up, after Texas state lawmakers subpoenaed the company's records in a probe into the issue. The legislative subpoena, issued last month and reviewed by DailyMail.com on Wednesday, commands BlackRock to hand over documents related to its ESG strategy for a December 15 hearing of the Texas Senate's Committee on State Affairs. It follows mounting criticism of BlackRock from Republican lawmakers and state officials, who accuse the firm of putting social and political goals ahead of earning returns for investors and retirement savers. Texas...

Time Magazine announced its pick for Person of the Year. After careful consideration, Time picked Ukraine's President Zelenskyy as its selection. Neo-Fascists in Europe and other Western nations praised the selection in keeping with the dubious standards previously used in selecting Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Ayatullah Khomeini, Vladmir Putin, etc. as Times' Person of the Year. Since the Garbage Can of Humanity is nowhere near empty, Times' 2023 selection will prove to be just as foolish.

If the idea of waking up at 5am for productivity makes you want to roll over and hit snooze until Saturday, don’t fret, says HR expert Adrian Tan.When the circuit breaker was tripped in 2020, my kids were doing home-based learning every day. Because I had to provide on-site tech support to three demanding users throughout the day, I couldn’t begin any serious work until late in the afternoon. I thought rising early to avoid that distraction could be the productivity hack I needed. Inspired by retired US Navy SEAL officer Jocko Willink's – who posts daily photos of his...

A concealed carry holder shot two teenagers who were trying to rob him Monday morning in Austin, according to Chicago police. The man, 56, was in his car in the 4700 block of West Arthington Avenue when three teens approached in another car just before 6 a.m., police said. The incident unfolded around 6 a.m. in the city’s west side when a vehicle with “three males inside” approached the victim, who was inside his own vehicle, Chicago Police told Fox News Digital in a statement. “One of the individuals got out of the vehicle, pointed a firearm at the victim...

A former Miami congressman who signed a $50 million consulting contract with Venezuela’s socialist government has been arrested in connection to an ongoing federal criminal investigation, law enforcement officials said. David Rivera, a Republican who served from 2011 to 2013, was arrested Monday at Atlanta’s airport, said Marlene Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami. She said Rivera was indicted by a Miami grand jury last month, but that document remains sealed and she could not discuss the charges.

Two documents with classified markings were found in a Florida storage unit during a search by a team hired by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers, a person familiar with the situation told CNN.

Russian crude-oil exports have taken a serious hit since new sanctions and a price cap came into force earlier in the week, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that figures from two data providers on Russian crude both show a big fall, though their magnitudes differ. According to one commodity-analytics firm Kpler, Russia’s seaborne exports fell by nearly 500,000 barrels per day on Tuesday, a 16% decline from the November average of 3.08 million bpd. Meanwhile, TankerTrackers.com, which tracks sea vessels using signals and satellite images, has reported that Russia's crude exports fell by nearly 50%. With shipments from the...

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel unequivocally endorsed mail-in balloting Tuesday, distancing herself from former President Donald Trump on an issue that is fracturing the GOP in the wake of disappointing election results this fall.“What we do need is our voters need to vote early,” McDaniel, a longtime Trump ally, said during a televised interview on Fox News. “I have said this over and over again. There were many in 2020 saying, ‘Don’t vote by mail, don’t vote early.’ And we have to stop that.”..."The discussion was about Democrats having a month to bank votes while Republicans expect to get...

Philadelphia's police force remains understaffed. According to the Philadelphia Police Department, there have been 478 murders so far this year. The odds of becoming a victim of a property crime in the city are 1 in 34. One North Philadelphia proprietor has had enough. No longer willing to leave his life, his livelihood, and his customers' well-being to chance, Neil Patel, who runs Karco gas station at Broad and Clearfield streets, has raised his own defense force. It is unclear, however, if elements of that force's past offenses will come back to jeopardize the initiative. Patel owns 22 gas stations...

Herschel Walker’s 100,000-vote loss in Georgia puts the exclamation point on the “Donald Trump is electoral poison” narrative. If the former president had deliberately attempted to sabotage the Republicans' chances ever since November 2020, he could not have been more destructive than he actually was. In the Senate, the Trump effect meant Republicans lost chances at a whopping 10 seats (one of them two times!) they either should have won or in which they might have been competitive. In the House, Trump’s harm was more diffused, but almost equally baleful. On Jan. 5, 2021, Republicans lost two Senate seats in...