Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — International students attended U.S. universities in surging numbers last year, rebounding from a pandemic slump with the help of a 35% jump in students coming from India, according to a study released Monday. Overall, the number of international students in the U.S. grew by 12% in the 2022-23 academic year, the largest single-year increase in more than 40 years, according to findings from the State Department and the nonprofit Institute of International Education. More than 1 million students came from abroad, the most since the 2019-20 school year. ... American colleges enrolled nearly 269,000 students from India,...

The House is under new management but is operating under business as usual as it prepares to pass a continuing resolution (CR) that once again extends spending levels and policies pushed through by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in last December’s lame duck session. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is moving a laddered CR that extends current spending levels for Agriculture, Energy and Water, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD spending bills through January 19 with the remaining eight bills extended through February 2.

Only a small share of millionaires say they feel wealthy,.. Persistent inflation has taken a toll on most Americans’ financial security, making it harder to feel well off.. What does it take to be rich? “The short answer is more... Feeling “rich” is increasingly elusive. Even among millionaires, only 8% would characterize themselves as wealthy these days. Roughly 60% of investors with $1 million or more of investable assets said they are more likely upper middle class, ... Even doctors, lawyers and other highly paid professionals — also referred to as the “regular rich” — who benefit from stable jobs,...

IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari delivered an address to the media this evening (Monday) on the discovery of extensive terrorist infrastructure at the Rantisi Children's Hospital in Gaza. "I just got back from Gaza, where I joined an operation inside the Rantisi Children's Hospital," he began. "I went to the hospital with a video camera and personally documented more concrete evidence. The concrete evidence proves that Hamas uses hospitals as an instrument of war." "Underneath the hospital, in the basement, we found a Hamas command and control center, suicide bomb vests, grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, explosive devices, RPGs, and...

Sabrina Khan-Williams, the “team leader/diversity, equity & inclusion teacher” in the World Studies department of Tilden Middle School, contends in social media posts that Hamas’ paragliding attack on a rave was a hoax. “Debunked!! No music festival attack. Babies were not burned. Women were not violated,” she wrote on Facebook. “Palestinian’s [sic] are being killed and their organs are being sold,” wrote Khan-Williams, who teaches in Bethesda, Maryland, which has a significant Jewish population. Christopher Cram, a spokesman for MCPS, would not explain what the role of a “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Teacher” was, or how “inclusion” could encompass Khan-Williams’...

The Douglas County Health Department (DCHD) and its partners are responding to a confirmed case of active tuberculosis disease (TB) at Westview YMCA. DCHD is investigating more than 500 possible exposures that may have happened at the facility’s drop-in daycare and is working to identify individuals who had close contact with the patient. Those possible exposures would have happened from late spring into late October. The Douglas County Health Department is investigating the patient’s activities while they were contagious to learn of potential exposures, helping the patient isolate, and observing them complete their medication until they test negative for TB....

U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, a Dallas-area Republican who has held his post for two decades, will not seek re-election next year, he announced Monday. “It has been the honor of my life to have gone from a small-town doctor delivering babies, with no prior political experience, to elected to represent my friends and neighbors in the United States Congress,” the Lewisville Republican said in a statement Monday afternoon. Burgess, 72, first won the seat in 2002 after House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who had held it since the mid-1980s, retired — defeating Armey’s son for the seat. Burgess has since...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland to lead Rosary rally outside US Catholic bishops’ meeting this WednesdayBALTIMORE (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Joseph Strickland, whom Pope Francis removed from his diocese over the weekend, will lead a Rosary rally this week in Baltimore as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) conducts its meetings for its biannual plenary session. READ: Bishop Strickland: I was removed because forces in the Church want to change the teaching of Jesus At noon on Wednesday, November 15, Bishop Strickland will recite the Rosary publicly at the plaza on the waterfront side of the Marriott Waterfront Hotel Inner...

Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant commented, upon completing an operational situation assessment: "Hamas has lost control of Gaza - terrorists are fleeing south, civilians are looting Hamas bases." Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant recently completed a situation assessment during which he emphasized the progress of IDF forces operating in Gaza. Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant added: "I have recently completed another situation assessment. IDF troops are working according to plan and are fulfilling their missions precisely as a result of the cooperation between air and ground forces, using precise intelligence.' "Hamas isn't capable of stopping the IDF. The IDF is...

Luke 17:1-6 Friends, in today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus speak about faith. Faith is powerful, for it is a link to the reality of God, the power that made and sustains the cosmos. Sometimes, the power of faith is manifested in spectacular and immediately obvious ways. For example, there is a long tradition of faith healing stretching back to Jesus himself and through many of the saints. There is also the power of prayer. When some people ask in a spirit of trust, really believing that what they are asking for will happen, it happens.But more often than not, the...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s early 2024 presidential campaign appears to have been underwritten by the Republican Governors Association (RGA), with almost $21 million contributed to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC being transferred to his Never Back Down PAC. In fact, by mid-2022, one-in-every-four dollars the RGA took in was redirected to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC under the guise of supporting the Florida Governor’s re-election bid.These sums could make sense in a scenario where the Republican incumbent was in a serious fight with a strong Democrat challenger, or if the RGA was looking to knock out a sitting...

SEATTLE, WA — In an effort to smooth things over with the Jewish community after baristas voiced support for Hamas, coffee giant Starbucks has begun to give Jewish customers a little something extra by placing a yellow star sticker on their coffee cups. "We value our Jewish customers and want everyone to know exactly who they are," said Starbucks spokesperson Dan Spivey. "We don't want any of our customers to feel alienated or discriminated against, so we're placing these yellow stars on the cups of our Jewish customers to make sure they are fully recognized." Jewish groups had called for...

Dirty Jack Smith is fighting to ban video and audio in Trump’s DC March 2024 trial. In August Trump was hit with 4 counts in Jack Smith’s January 6 case up in DC: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. A group of media organizations referred to as “Media Coalition” applied to “record and telecast” the DC trial. Jack Smith in a filing earlier this month argued that audio and video should be banned. He knows he doesn’t have a case. The...

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Monday “Bloomberg Technology” that her city has constantly been cleaning streets and helping the homeless get shelter while discussing preparing for the APEC Summit of President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping. Host Ed Ludlow said, “Why has it taken the visit of U.S. President Biden, China’s President Xi, leaders around the world for action on all of the problems the city has been talking about for 4 years now?” Breed said, “Just to be clear, we have been working on this for a few years. This is not an issue have been sitting...

The former leader of Fatah in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, has been living in exile in the United Arab Emirates for the past 10 years, where he has become a successful businessman. Born in the Palestinian coastal enclave, Dahlan is a powerful financial force in Gaza and an influential figure in the wider region – if Hamas fell, could he return to power?

A memo from a Wisconsin deputy city administrator discouraged employees from putting up “religious decorations” in “red and green colors” for the holidays in public buildings in order to be “inclusive.” The email from Wauwatosa Deputy City Administrator Melissa Cantarero Weiss, obtained by local outlet Wisconsin Right Now, began by requesting that city employees create a “welcoming and inclusive environment for all residents and visitors to our buildings, as well as all our co-workers.” The message went on to ask that workers refrain from using “religious decorations” or “those solely associated with Christmas (such as red and green colors)” in...

Kamala Harris loves her Venn Diagrams, so I made her one.

No this is not satire, the propaganda machine is just growing increasingly stupid. In May, the “experts” at NOAA predicted the likeliest scenario for the upcoming hurricane season would be a “near-normal” one: NOAA’s outlook for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, which goes from June 1 to November 30, predicts a 40% chance of a near-normal season, a 30% chance of an above-normal season and a 30% chance of a below-normal season. ‘With a changing climate, the data and expertise NOAA provides to emergency managers and partners to support decision-making before, during and after a hurricane has never been more...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Schneider Responds to the Deposition of His Brother Bishop Strickland“The one charge which is now sure to secure severe punishment is the careful keeping of the traditions of the Fathers.” These words of St. Basil (Ep. 243) can most aptly illustrate the deposition of the Bishop of Tyler, TX/USA, His Excellency Joseph E. Strickland. The deposition of Bishop Joseph E. Strickland signifies a black day for the Catholic Church of our day. We are witnessing a blatant injustice towards a bishop who did his duty in preaching and defending with parrhesia the immutable Catholic faith and morals...

The Biden administration may approve a sanctions waiver on Tuesday that will allow Iran to access at least $10 billion in previously frozen funds held in Iraq, a closely watched decision that comes just a month after the Tehran-backed terror group Hamas launched an attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead. The waiver would extend the multibillion-dollar sanctions relief first issued in July that expires tomorrow. It allows Iraq to transfer frozen electricity payments into Iranian-owned bank accounts in Europe and Oman. The waiver renewal is driving concerns that the Biden administration is maintaining financial avenues for Tehran as the...