Free Republic

​China’s foreign minister signaled in a speech Sunday that Beijing would bolster its ties with Russia in the coming year, while defending the communist country’s impartiality on the war in Ukraine. ​ Wang Yi​, ​speaking by video to a conference in the Chinese capital, ​said China would ​​“deepen strategic mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation” with Russia.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said former President Donald Trump‘s influence is waning, reiterating his blame towards his political foe for GOP shortcomings in the midterms. Mr. McConnell, who has had an increasingly strained relationship with Mr. Trump since the 2021 Capitol riot, said Mr. Trump helped cast voters an unappealing image of the Republican Party that broke the trust of the electorate. “We lost support that we needed among independents and moderate Republicans, primarily related to the view they had of us as a party — largely made by the former president — that we were sort of nasty...

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic dispatched the army chief on Sunday night to the border with Kosovo, General Milan Mojsilovic himself announced, as strained relations between the two countries were exacerbated by recent blockades. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade refuses to recognise the move and encourages the remaining 120,000 Serbs to defy Pristina's authority. .... Shots fired near NATO forces in northern Kosovo as tensions remain high - report https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/shots-fired-near-nato-forces-in-northern-kosovo-as-tensions-remain-high-report/ar-AA15ECsM

“Lights, please.” For half a century, it’s been one of the most significant phrases in American Christianity. A prelude to something sacred in an unlikely place: the Gospel of Luke, King James translation, as recited by Linus van Pelt in A Charlie Brown Christmas. My parents were atheists; I knew almost nothing about Christianity as a child, although I got the lay of the land when I was sent to Catholic school in sixth grade. Before that, my parents—especially my mother—actively worked to keep me and my sister free from religion, Christianity in particular. But we had our gods. Santa...

One America News host Chanel Rion interviewed President Trump last week about a variety of current events including the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the election lawsuit in Arizona and the release of Twitter File information showing the FBI working against his 2020 reelection effort. {Direct Rumble Link} The overall interview is interesting from the perspective of a brief glimpse into how President Trump is absorbing the current revelations and the situation our nation is facing. In the unique way that only Trump can summarize, he cuts to the core truth of the 2020 election in the statement, “think of it, the government...

12 people are now reported dead in the Buffalo, New York area (Erie County) because of a blizzard... Six people dead and two hurt when a bus went off a bridge and into an overflowing river... 43 Chinese warplanes flying across the median line in the Taiwan Strait coming close to Taiwan. This happened in a 24-hour period. In all Taiwan tracked 71 warplanes and seven ships from China in its vicinity... In Kosovo tonight the NATO military force KFOR denies any fighting between it and Serbs in Kosovo... Israel grounding its F-35I fighter jets... "Of course we'll take them...

Join together 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 2:1-2Religion Forum Threads Labeled [Prayer] are Closed to Debate of Any Kind. 'And this is the Confidence that we have in Him, that, if we Ask Anything According to His Will, He Heareth us.' 1 John 5:14Isaiah 43:3I Am...

Philosophers seeking to answer questions around inequality in household labour and the invisibility of women's work in the home have proposed a new theory -- that men and women are trained by society to see different possibilities for action in the same domestic environment. They say a view called "affordance theory" -- that we experience objects and situations as having actions implicitly attached -- underwrites the age-old gender disparity when it comes to the myriad mundane tasks of daily home maintenance. For example, women may look at a surface and see an implied action -- 'to be wiped' -- whereas...

IN BRIEF Sundar Pichai is apparently all in a pickle over OpenAI's ChatGPT engine, and is gearing up Google to meet the perceived threat. According to an internal memo seen by the New York Times, Pichai has "upended the work of numerous groups inside the company to respond to the threat that ChatGPT," and is plucking staff from other divisions to meet the threat to the OpenAI's plans. It's reportedly considered a "Code Red" for the Chocolate Factory. At issue is whether Google's core product, search, will be displaced by AI systems that can give more accurate research results, and...

When Andre Audette first arrived at Notre Dame for grad school, he got a brochure about living in South Bend, Indiana. That brochure included a section on churches and advice on which Catholic parish to attend if you were conservative and which to attend if you were liberal.While Audette ignored the brochure’s advice — choosing a different parish altogether — the link between church shopping and politics stuck with him.“I found that kind of fascinating,” said Audette, now an assistant professor of political science at Monmouth College in Central Illinois. Audette is co-author of a new study on the role...

The blizzard ended Christmas morning, but the emergency was far from over. With first responders in Buffalo and the Northtowns finally able to start maneuvering, the devastation from the fierce winter storm that battered the region with gale force winds, lake-effect snow and bitter subfreezing temperatures was coming to light. Sister says Buffalo man died in the blizzard on his 56th birthday On Day 3 of the storm, desperation was growing. At least 17 people were dead, and authorities said there was no question that the death toll would increase.

A Seattle official has been handed a sarcastic award for banning city workers from displaying Christmas or Hanukkah decorations in their own homes while on Zoom calls to avoid offending colleagues with different beliefs. Gloria Ngezaho is the workforce equity manager for King County, which encompasses Seattle, and was handed the Ebenezer Award from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Ngezaho's draconian edict was first revealed in November, and he was handed the award last week over his 'Guidelines for Holiday Decorations' rules.

On Christmas 1017, England’s King Cnut had the ealdorman Eadric Streona summarily axed. While legend has it that Eadric Streona (“Grasping Eadric” or “Eadric the Acquisitor”) irritated the monarch by beating him in a game of chess, Middle Ages chroniclers attributed his fate to the just deserts of inveterate treachery. A couple centuries of Viking raids and conquests had just culminated with the Northmen’s outright capture of the English throne, fifty years before the better-remembered Norman invasion. Notwithstanding his best efforts at resistance, the Anglo-Saxon king Aethelred the Unready had been briefly driven into exile by Cnut’s father, Sweyn Forkbeard,...

The principal who fired the Christian teacher also refuses to use someone's 'preferred pronouns.'AKRON, Ohio (LifeSiteNews) — A Christian public school teacher filed a federal lawsuit against her former employer after it forced her out for refusing to support gender-confused children in their “social transition” by using their chosen pronouns and names. Defendants in the First Amendment lawsuit include Jackson Local School District, Principal Kacy Carter, Superintendent Christopher DiLoreto, and Monica Myers, the curriculum director. Yet, Vivian Geraghty appeared to follow the same policy that Principal Carter himself stated he followed – to avoid using someone’s pronouns if it conflicted...

For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships. This episode has emerged amid the school district’s new strategy of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.” School administrators, for instance, have implemented an “equitable grading” policy that eliminates zeros, gives students a grade of 50 percent just for showing up, and assigns a cryptic code of “NTI” for assignments not turned...

Retired U.S. General Mark Hertling dismissed Russia's offer to negotiate over the war in Ukraine, even after Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed readiness to discuss solutions. "On Christmas Eve Putin says he's 'ready to negotiate.' Having 'negotiated' w/ Russian military & Defense Ministry I learned lessons: Even in small things, RU officials don't negotiate...they demand, then they lie, and then they renege on agreements," Hertling tweeted Sunday.

As Ron DeSantis works to enact an investigation into all things Covid Vaccine, including whether the pharmaceutical industry and/or the Federal Government lied about the efficiency, the effectiveness, the safety of the vaccines, and/or the effectiveness of natural immunity as opposed to the vaccine, I got in a debate with someone online about whether or not conservatives deny science. I made the following claim: “Yours is a conditioned response. The actual science tells us that Covid-19 is a weaponized bat disease with a human-designed spike protein attached to it to make it easily spread among humans. How it escaped the...

Three power substation facilities were vandalized in Pierce County, Washington, on Christmas morning, knocking out power to more than 14,000 customers, authorities said. Two of the break-ins were at Tacoma Public Utilities substations and the third was at a Puget Sound Energy station, according to the sheriff's office in Pierce County, which encompasses Tacoma.

Tim Conway & Harvey Korman star in "The Dentist" – one of the most popular sketches from The Carol Burnett Show! Conway plays a recently graduated dentist who accidentally injects himself with Novocaine his first day on the job.

Dear Remnant Readers... A Christmas Message from Archbishop ViganòRex pacificus magnificatus est, cujus vultum desiderat universa terra.[1]The whole earth desires to contemplate the blessed face of the King of peace, who deigned to be born according to the flesh, two thousand twenty-two years ago, to redeem us from the yoke of Satan and acquire us for the glory of heaven with His most holy Passion.For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace....