Free Republic

Last year, India nudged past China to become the world's most populous country, according to UN estimates. With nearly 1.45 billion people now, you'd think the country would be quiet about having more children. But guess what? The chatter has suddenly picked up. Leaders of two southern states – Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu – have recently advocated more children. Andhra Pradesh is mulling providing incentives, citing low fertility rates and ageing population. The state also scrapped its "two-child policy" for local body elections, and reports say neighbouring Telangana may soon do the same. Next-door Tamil Nadu is also making...

But the obstacles the U.S. has faced in trying to supply Ukraine during the past two years have revealed a systemic, gaping national-security weakness. It is a weakness that afflicts the U.S. military at all levels, and about which the public is largely unaware. The vaunted American war machine is in disarray and disrepair. .....Ted Anderson, a retired Army officer who is now a principal partner of Forward Global, a defense consultancy, told me, “You would stay awake all night if you had any idea how short we are of artillery ammo.”

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Wednesday announced the state has obtained an arrest warrant for attempted felony murder against Ryan Routh, who is already being held in federal custody on charges of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump. It’s a continuation of a back-and-forth between the Biden administration and Florida Republican leaders over the state’s role in investigating the September assassination attempt... Moody said the arrest warrant for attempted felony murder is not directly related to the Trump assassination attempt itself but because of a vehicle crash... that injured a 6-year-old girl, which motivated the state’s push to seek its...

(The Center Square) – A unanimous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court may pave the way for challenges to a federal deportation plan under the incoming Trump administration to be defeated. The ruling was issued in a “sham marriage” case ...The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which in a 9-0 vote affirmed both lower court rulings. “Section 1155 is a quintessential grant of discretion,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a President Joe Biden appointee, wrote in the decision. “The Secretary ‘may’ revoke a previously approved visa petition ‘at any time’ for what the Secretary deems ‘good and sufficient cause.’...

Israeli Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli called for the internartional coomunity to grant and recognize the independence of Kurdistan as Kurdish regions in northern Syria face attacks from Turkey and Turkish-backed rebel groups. "Kurdistan must be granted independence, while Erdoğan should be expelled from NATO and left to crown himself as the caliph of an Islamic state, ruling alongside his friends in ISIS and Al-Qaeda," Chikli wrote on X. Chikli's comments were made in response to an interview given by a Kurdish journalist in Syria with Israel's Kan News channel. .....

Police have recovered a massive drone apparently abandoned in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A photo obtained by the New York Post shows an NYPD officer holding up the large aircraft, which appears to be more than five feet in diameter. Energy startup Amogy, Inc. said it manufactured the drone and had placed it on the sidewalk outside its headquarters a month before... Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo later confirmed to the Post that the drone belonged to the company and said it had been placed on the sidewalk after a company party about a month ago....

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday blocked an effort by Senate Democrats to pass legislation to authorize and provide resources to state and local authorities to track mysterious drones that have been sighted over New Jersey, New York and other states. Paul argued the bill would have expanded the government’s surveillance powers and downplayed concerns that the drones pose a threat to the public. “This body must not rush to grant sweeping surveillance powers without proper consideration and debate by the committees of jurisdiction,” said Paul, who is poised to become the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

It’s not Israel that it needs to be worried about.The obsession of the Irish government with falsely accusing Israel of genocide is only equaled by its determination to commit an actual genocide against the Irish people.In its latest move, the Irish government has called for watering down the definition of genocide to be able to apply it to the Jewish State, but there is no need to water down the formal definition, the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”, to charge Ireland’s government with ‘self-genocide’ or ‘autogenocide’ against its own people.In...

The US Department of Defense on Wednesday (Dec 18) announced the repatriation of two Guantanamo Bay detainees to Malaysia, where the government said it was planning a reintegration programme for the two men. Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep had each pled guilty to multiple offences before a military commission, the defence department said in a statement. "In consultation with our partners in Malaysia, we completed the requirements for responsible transfer," the department said in a statement. Sentences of confinement for approximately five years for both of the men had been approved in June, when it was...

From RM18 (S$5.40) [US$4.00] at his Pavilion KL outlet to RM16 (S$4.80) at his new outlet at MyTown mall.Earlier this year, Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng, aka Uncle Roger, 33, opened his first restaurant Fuiyoh! It’s Uncle Roger in the upscale Kuala Lumpur shopping mall Pavilion KL. The KL native, who is now based in the US, recently made a trip back to Malaysia for the grand opening of his eatery’s second and third outlets in KL’s MyTown mall and Selangor’s IPC Shopping Centre. It looks like Uncle Roger has been listening to feedback from his customers. During an interview with...

House Republicans are currently debating a continuing resolution that would keep the government running through March 14, however many are heavily criticizing leadership for trying to push through unnecessary provisions negotiated behind closed doors. The over 1,500-page spending measure will receive votes from both Democrats and Republicans and is being pushed by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Johnson said in September that he has “no intention of going back” to the “terrible tradition” of a Christmas omnibus....... Here are some of the provisions drawing the biggest blowback from conservatives, many of which were identified on X by users like...

A math teacher at a California high school left parents outraged after he ordered his students to either come out as gay or lesbian during an activity. Freshmen at Rancho Buena Vista High School were participating in an elective seminar class designed to teach them how to be socially current when they were given a diversity, equity and inclusion exercise last month. But the teenagers - and their parents - never could have expected what the assignment would entail. Students were given the following instructions: 'Stand in a circle. Each of you is now gay or lesbian, and you are...

USA: One person was killed and four were injured after a freight train hit a truck standing on the tracks in the city of Pecos, Texas. As a result of the impact, the train derailed and hit buildings.

A bipartisan spending deal to avert a shutdown was on life support on Wednesday after President-elect Donald J. Trump condemned it, leaving lawmakers without a strategy to fund the government past a Friday night deadline. Mr. Trump issued a scathing statement ordering Republicans not to support the sprawling bill, piling on to a barrage of criticism from Elon Musk, who spent Wednesday trashing the measure on social media and threatening any Republican who supported it with political ruin. It was not yet clear how Speaker Mike Johnson planned to proceed as the package, which was stuffed full of unrelated policy...

Alexander Paffendorf, 20, of Carlsbad, was detained by FBI agents on suspicion of 'plotting' to coordinate a mass shooting at government buildings in conjunction with Rupnow, according to an emergency gun violence restraining order reviewed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It notes that FBI agents 'saw the messages from Paffendorf to Rupnow.' It was not immediately clear how Paffendorf knew Rupnow, and Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Journal Sentinel he did not have any information about the arrest in California, and referred questions to the FBI.

Newly-elected State Representative Brenda Pugh (R-Luzerne) 120th called on city officials to remove President Joe Biden’s name from signage on the expressway that leads into Scranton, claiming it “will forever be a scar” to the people of northeastern Pennsylvania. Pugh’s call for action stems from President Biden granting clemency to disgraced former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan. Conahan and former Judge Mark Ciavarella were convicted of accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks for sending thousands of juveniles to two private detention centers in which they had a business interest. The juveniles were wrongly imprisoned for minor crimes, if any crime...

Welcome to the PRAYER REQUESTS thread. This daily thread is a listing of prayer requests that have been posted by Freepers to the main forum who wish to have continued prayer. Hopefully this thread will remind us to continually pray for our fellow Freepers’ cares and needs. GOD hears and answers our prayers.

Look at all of these beautiful Christmas decorations at the Crocker Galleria mall in San Francisco. It’s 4:47 PM and everybody should be shopping and buying Christmas presents for their family, but nobody is in this mall.. There are only three stores left that are open here. The escalators hum on inside this beautiful but empty decorated mall. Outside on Market Street the fentanyl addicts lay folded over while a street performer sings Last Christmas to an empty Street. ... This is what Gavin Newsom let happen to California’s economy. Who votes for this loser? Look what he has done....

@WesternLensman @RepThomasMassie with the truth bomb: "I have Republican colleagues who'd rather run over their own mom with a car than to vote to cut spending."

California’s zero emission regulations are causing truck shortages and rising costs, according to the trucking and heavy-duty vehicle industry.State officials plan to end traditional combustion truck sales by 2036.California’s Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) regulation requires manufacturing companies to gradually increase the percentage of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) they sell on the market—such as electric or hydrogen—and reduce the number of gas and diesel trucks.Anthony Bento, chief legal officer for the California New Car Dealers Association, said dealers in the state have seen dramatic decreases in available trucks for the 2024 model year as a result of the new rules.“These rules are...