Free Republic

Official Lyric Video for "O Come, All Ye Faithful" by Elvis Presley

As the H5N1 bird flu virus steamrolls its way across the globe — killing wild animals, commercial livestock and even some people — scientists and health officials fear we’re on the precipice of another global pandemic.But when, where and how that could come to pass is hard to predict — in part, some researchers say, because of guardrails the federal government has placed around gain-of-function research.The term describes experiments that seek to understand a virus’ potential to adapt to new hosts, spread more easily, survive longer in the environment and cause those infected to become sicker. Though many scientists view...

President-elect Donald Trump’s threat last weekend to reclaim the Panama Canal was designed to make clear that “decades of U.S. commerce financing China’s growth and strategic footprint in the Americas is over,” according to a senior Trump appointee.Successive administrations have allowed a “vacuum of control and influence” in the Western Hemisphere, Mauricio Claver-Carone, named by Trump as his incoming administration’s special envoy for Latin America, said Monday.But those earlier administrations also included Trump’s first term, when his policy in the hemisphere focused primarily on migration and sanctions against Venezuela, even as Panama severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and established ties...

Three stories of strength and inspirationThis Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I want to honor three strong men whose examples have given me a bit of courage and resilience when I needed it. None of them had any idea that they were filling this role. But particularly now I want other people who may be in need of a similar boost to know of their examples. For reasons that I will describe (briefly) below, the past couple of years have been a bit of a . . . . challenge, for lack of a better word. But during the rough...

Over the past two days, President-elect Donald J. Trump has made clear that he has designs for American territorial expansion, declaring that the United States has both security concerns and commercial interests that can best be addressed by bringing the Panama Canal and Greenland under American control or outright ownership.Mr. Trump’s tone has had none of the trolling jocularity that surrounded his repeated suggestions in recent weeks that Canada should become America’s “51st state,” including his social media references to the country’s beleaguered prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau.”Instead, while naming a new ambassador to Denmark — which controls Greenland’s...

CNN contributor Scott Jennings said Tuesday on “News Central” that the Democratic Party lost in the November election because they had become the party of “uncommon nonsense.” Network analyst Maria Cardona said, “This was not a sweeping mandate. Donald Trump didn’t even break 50% of the popular vote. I’m not saying that Democrats don’t have challenges, absolutely we have challenges in how we communicated and where we communicated and to whom we communicated. But I do not agree that the Democratic Party brand is in as much trouble as both of these folks are talking about.”

From Matt Gaetz to Pete Hegseth to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., several of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks have faced major blowback and media opposition campaigns aimed at derailing their nominations. But one pick conservatives were bracing for a knock-down, drag-out fight over is seemingly sailing toward confirmation despite early wailing from Democrats: would-be FBI Director Kash Patel. Patel was the former Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense and rose to prominence after being a vocal critic of the Mueller investigation into “Russian interference” during the 2016 election, which turned up nothing but caused a major distraction during...

On the same night a U.S. Navy fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea, a second jet nearly suffered the same fate. An F/A-18 Super Hornet – flying a few miles behind the Hornet that was shot down – was forced to take evasive maneuvers after a second surface-to-air missile was fired from the cruiser USS Gettysburg, narrowly missing the second jet by 100 feet while it prepared to land aboard the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, a source with knowledge of the incident tells Fox News. A Navy official confirmed that a second SM-2 missile was fired...

Crazy Rocketman Bob Maddox wishing all a Merry Christmas.

Liberals have become so mesmerized by multicultural gibberish that they have forgotten the real history of Kwanzaa and Karenga's United Slaves. In what was ultimately a foolish gambit, during the madness of the '60s, the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the group, the better. (It's the same function #BlackLivesMatter serves today.) By that criterion, Karenga's United Slaves was perfect. Despite modern perceptions that blend all the black activists of the '60s, the Black Panthers did not hate whites. Although some of their most high-profile leaders were...

With employees from various walks of life, the holidays can present both opportunities and challenges for fostering inclusion in the workplace. Ensuring that everyone feels respected and valued requires thoughtful planning and action. Outside of the more commonly known holidays such as Christmas, New Year’s, and Labor Day, dozens of celebrations take place every year that most likely affect a few people in your team. But it’s not enough to simply be aware of these differences. As the holiday season approaches, nothing highlights a sense of community more than embracing and appreciating the diverse beliefs in the workplace. Let’s take...

VIDEOTacky out! Classy back! In just 27 days as of this posting!

At Fort Kochi’s St. Francis Church, history appears to have been buried, forgotten, and dead. “Remembering Vasco da Gama, Portuguese navigator; he arrived in Cochin…where he died and was first buried” is written on a plain blue board at the chapel. The man who found the sea route to India in 1498, revolutionising international trade and cross-cultural contact, passed away on December 24, 1524. In the actual location of his death, amnesia reigns as programmes for the 500th anniversary are underway at Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon, where his ashes were repatriated from Kochi in 1539. Not even a candle is...

Great news! Our new merchant services account has been approved and we have completed our integration programming! We can now start using our own form for entering credit/debit card donations. Monthly donors: If you are you using a credit or debit card for your automatic monthly donations, please use our credit card link below to enter a new monthly record. Sorry, the old ones no longer work. Thank you very much. All FReepers: And now we need your continuing support to get caught up and to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies,...

A post has gone viral on social media that falsely identifies a victim of a recent attack on the New York City subway. On December 23, a post claimed the victim was a woman named Amelia Carter, and included an AI-generated image. The post, which is a hoax, had been viewed 2.4 million times on X at the time of publication. A spokesperson for the DCPI confirmed to Newsweek that identification of a the victim in the attack is still pending. Early on December 22, a woman was set on fire on the NYC subway. She was pronounced dead at...

A recently resurfaced CIA document, which was declassified in 2017, has shed light on an experiment conducted on May 22, 1984. The experiment—part of a larger program often referred to as “Project Stargate”—allegedly transported the subject’s consciousness back in time, approximately one million years B.C. Project Stargate was a secret U.S. Army initiative established in 1977 at Fort Meade, Maryland, by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and SRI International. Its primary objective was to investigate the potential use of psychic phenomena, including remote viewing, telepathy, and psychokinesis, for military and intelligence applications, according to Daily Mail. The news outlet added,...

Starmer sucks. Let me count the ways.... 13 minutes of panel time. Short and sweet. Transcript linked below video.

Speaking at the 16th International Aids Conference in 2006, the then UNAids executive director, Peter Piot, remarked: “Since the beginning of the epidemic, stigma, discrimination and gender inequality have been identified as major causes of personal suffering, and as major obstacles to effective responses to HIV.” Now, in the fourth decade of the HIV crisis, this statement remains largely true. Despite the leaps and bounds that have been made in the treatment and prevention of HIV, stigma and discrimination continue to harm the lives of people living with HIV, and hinder efforts to stem the epidemic globally.

Daily Readings from the USCCBZechariah his father, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied, saying: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has come to his people and set them free…” Luke 1:67–68Our story of the birth of Saint John the Baptist concludes today with the song of praise spoken by Zechariah after his tongue had been loosened on account of his transformation in faith. He had moved from doubting what the Archangel Gabriel had spoken to him to believing and following the command of the Archangel to name his firstborn son “John.” As we saw in yesterday’s...

Prosecutors have said at least some of the violence against Israeli soccer fans was motivated by ‘the situation in Gaza,’ not antisemitism; 6 more suspects yet to appear at court A Dutch court on Tuesday convicted five men for their part in last month’s violence against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam that shocked the world and sparked accusations of antisemitism. The Amsterdam district court found them guilty of a range of crimes, from kicking fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the street to inciting violence in chat groups. The heaviest sentence imposed was six months in prison, for a man...